Gundam Wing: One last dance
by Trel
Summary: Not such a small story no more, associated to Go, Win, Fight by ShadowFox
1. Fish swim in schools

This story is one written in Shadowfox's story GW: The Great Reurn done by Trel Armstrong , not a side ficlet or anything just a story written by the C in her spare time. And since I had nothing written when i put that in her POV I figured it wouldn't hurt to take on one more project and make this based on her opinion of the outcome and besides the point that she wrote it .... it really doesn't have anything to do with the story.  
  
Enjoy.  
  
~~~~~oO{@}Oo~~~~~  
  
Another day to trudge through thought Trel , of course the day before she'd had a laugh , it had once again become time to think about things like school and although she had lost one year of education due to a small misunderstanding on her own part it had not taken much persuading for her to join back into the mundane masses destined for the educational facilities.  
  
It was now four years after the insanity had started and almost every avenue they could think of had been exhausted in their attempts to return to the world they had once been in. But with that they still were not willing to just give up , if a 7 year old could manage to make a machine and pull a terrorist out of thin air then surely 6 very determined youths could find some way to do it.  
  
She had enjoyed the trip down here , the flight very much different from the kind she wanted , but at least it was warm and soon she'd have company she thought as the cab pulled up to the address she had handed him that she wrote down the day before. It looked huge compared to what she had been living in before but with 6 people living in one place it was going to have to be big after all.  
  
Grabbing her huge green duffel bag and a suitcase her father had bought her she walked up to the door , this was something she hadn't thought about before ..... how was she to get into this place , after all it was rather hard to send a key via e-mail.  
  
She rang knocked on the door hoping someone was there to meet them but the inside sounded hollow , she set the bags down and waited , looking around her new neighborhood , so far the small town looked decent and from what she found out it wasn't going to be all that horrible , after all it wasn't that far from the three S's as Niki would put it , sun , sand , and surf ..... sweet.  
  
Nikita's mom had insisted on driving down , she had never really gotten over the events that were almost four years ago , and living near ground zero who would blame her , of course Trel always thought there was more then just that but Niki's mom Judy had always been good hearted , even if she still called her Angel instead of Trel. They had offered Trel to go with them but Trel declined quickly , besides the long drive it would be from New York to California that poor car didn't look like it would have enough room for just those two with all the things they'd packed up , poor Mrs. Swiftrider was afraid they'd need something or had more of another thing which soon ended as a car load of appliances and kitchen utilities. It made her laugh when they waved bye and left , cramped up in the car singing road tunes and looking like they were just going to have a short trip.  
  
Her own mother had not been able to get any time off work which had been sad but she was use to doing things for herself , she had managed almost a year on her own which really had not pleased anyone when it came down to it but she had sent her love and some money along as did her father. He had been most impressed when she cracked down to the books and managed a scholarship , and she knew he had always been the one pushing her to do something with her life instead of ending like him , working the rest of his life as a painter.  
  
Of course none of them would have had a place to move into had it not been for Matt and his Dad , they had taken the time out to come all the way down here to find a place suitable , which meant it was bound to be the coolest thing to be found. It really had been amazing how all the parents seemed to accept their friendship as it was , as far as they knew these were 6 people who had never really met or anything and now they were all going to the same college , having met over the Internet and between phone calls and talking online had developed a strong friendship , but then what they didn't know surely couldn't hurt the group.  
  
The location could not have been better but they all had Jason to thank for that , ,in his searching for what everyone wanted he ran across this one ..... Diablo Valley College , of course no one believed him at first , it sounded like a video game but after he started dropping the info on them there was little doubt it was real. Lord only knew how he had persuaded Savanna into helping him research this whole place out though but the more the group thought about it the more it was liked.  
  
Amy had been the one that had resisted the longest , although she would never have said why to anyone else it was finally revealed that she was worried about what Mark and Craig were going to do without her , she had become much like a mother figure and definitely had the right stuff it seemed , but her brothers were not babies and now they were 17and 15 , they were more then able to fend for themselves , of course the offer to have them move in as well had been made but in the end it was Mark and Craig that made the decision for her , her mood that night had been somber when she informed the rest of the group so no one had pressed her , if she needed to talk about it they all knew she'd do it in her own time.  
  
Finally a truck pulled up in front of the building , the black hair giving away its occupant as she smiled , it seemed like they had finally started arriving as Matt got out of the driver's side of the truck and came to the door. "Hey , long time no see"  
  
It had been awhile since they'd all been together , with living in different areas it seemed impossible to catch up with everyone and although they usually managed at least one group meeting where everyone came in a year the feeling of being as they once were was finally starting to grow." Nice set of wheels Matt , definitely not the Skyline of old but I guess you made due huh ?"  
  
Matt just laughed and turned the door knob , he had left it open incase someone had happened to show while he grabbed his breakfast , he had managed to make it here last night and unload his own stuff but had managed very little sleep , it seemed so empty and quiet that it was eerie. He had liked this one the most as it was the biggest thing they had found , it had once been a warehouse for a company that had gone bankrupt , the landlady had bought it up and remodeled it for use by students , after all it really was such a short distance from the college that it would have been a shame to use it for anything else. She had been more then happy to rent the whole thing out too as he had 5 other friends that were coming to the same college and it was definitely big enough for them.  
  
"Well , what do you think , think it's big enough?" He finally asked , having watched her as she took the whole thing in.  
  
"Man , that has to be the biggest living room I have ever seen , we send you apartment shopping and you get us a bloody mansion fit for a Gundam" she laughed , the kitchen wasn't much smaller and the rooms he showed her were definitely going to look bare with what little she had brought , sure all she wanted was a couch and a table for the lap top , maybe something for her stereo but she certainly had not packed enough to fill this place.  
  
"Well grab a room and stow your gear , we're likely going to have our hands full with getting everything sorted away" he said as he headed into the kitchen to eat his cooling breakfast.  
  
She picked the one furthest from the door and hoped it was insulated as she did put the music up loud sometimes , dropped the suitcase and gently lowered the green bag to the ground , it having carried her lap top and stereo packed round with clothes to keep it from any damage , of course she had once filled a garbage bag and put it in there and still had room for a few things.  
  
She left the unpacking till later , wanting to explore the building a little more as she shut the door and took her time checking out the bathroom , ,then wandered to the roof top stairway , going up and propping the door open to look out over the massive roof top which would definitely make for a great party setting , that was if they had time.  
  
It was almost noon by the time the next vehicle had pulled up , a U-haul truck had come bearing Savanna and Jason along with Savanna's Dad who had drove it down. But neither Matt nor Trel was expecting the surprise when they opened the back and Amy jumped out , happy to get out and stretch her legs after the long ride in an easy chair that had been contributed to the college kids by Savanna's Grandfather. The girls danced around in a happy greeting while Matt and Jason just shook their heads and each others hand , waiting for the excitement to die down some before they all pitched in to unload the truck.  
  
They had only managed to get the truck half unloaded when the final member of the group arrived , ,the big blue station wagon that had carried half a house load itself had finally pulled up which started another happy break. It seemed Niki's mom had stopped to grab lunch and no one was going to disagree with a hot chicken dinner at the moment , soon enough lunch was over and both loads had been emptied into their new place.  
  
It was still rather bare , but that wasn't going to last for long , Judy had grabbed Nikita and pulled her out to the car , having mentioned that there was nothing to clean the toilet properly with. Trel grabbed Amy up to go looking up some extra furniture like a few sofa beds as they were definitely going to need something to cover up all the bare spots in the apartment , of course Trel was not about to mention that they had both arrived without beds so those were going to be top priority , leaving Jason and Savanna to get their own beds set up with Matt's help.  
  
By evenings end all had been settled , both Jason and Savanna had taken rooms on the bottom floor , Jason having the first room and the closest to the living room , Savanna had taken the one between Jason and Trel , Amy had followed Matt's lead and found a quiet room upstairs above Trel's room and Nikita had grabbed the one with all the windows , her herbs in mind and the lighting having been perfect for growing them all.  
  
Amy and Trel had managed to find three couches for the living room , a futon for Trel's room and a bed for Amy's room , plus a few coffee tables and a television which had just been brought in to a pawn shop , the people were moving and needed to get rid of it all and were glad to take three hundred just to be rid of it.  
  
Savanna's Dad had left shortly after the truck had been unloaded to get it back on the same day but Niki's mom stayed the night as it was a long drive back home which suited everyone but their first actual meal was more like a party then dinner. Jason had finally recharged from moving everything and was up to his usual mischief decorating the rafters with everything from a disco ball to Christmas lights and ignoring Savanna as she kept telling him he was going to fall. Matt looked up from the game in time to see Jason's arm slip , leaving him hanging by his legs , of course Jason just acted like a monkey and hauled himself back up which left their leader to smile and go back to his game. Niki was in the greenhouse / pool area enjoying the idea of being able to turn it into a jungle of her own choosing , Amy enjoying herself in the hot tub as Trel had kept checking the phones to see when they were finally going to turn them on , a whole night without the Internet was killing her.  
  
It had been Mrs. Swiftwind that suggested getting some sleep , it had been a hard day and for some it had been more then just one day that they had gone without a good night's worth of sleep and that the morning was bound to be as busy getting their classes selected and exploring the new grounds to coordinate themselves with the whole campus , plus there was also the town they'd need to get familiar with and get groceries since that seemed to have slipped everyone's mind so far.  
  
After a small laugh session it had been agreed , Matt had not slept well the night before , both Nikita and her mom had been on the road taking turns driving and the others , although not as bad off still had to get use to sleeping in a new place so it was bound to be a rough night for everyone. 


	2. Missing sheep

It had taken three days for the phone line to be connected but with everything else that had to be done in those days it was hard to notice it , Trel hadn't complained because she could still send and receive e-mail from the V-box plus they could still get some calls out to let everyone know all was going well and that yes they were still alive.  
  
Of course the day it had finally came on was the day they had all decided to check out the closest beach , ,after all it was a great day for it and it was better then sitting at home on a warm day like it had turned out to be , ,leaving a note on the door to call if it was an emergency. Hopefully if anyone needed them they would call as Jason had designed the security system and that alone was bound to be hazardous to anyone's health but it wasn't like they were being hunted down or needed to hide , in this world they were just six kids that were no different from any other group , out for fun , willing to learn and still seemed care free.  
  
There had been a lot there but that didn't stop them , Savanna and Jason had brought surf boards but mostly they just played in the water , throwing a ball around or a game of water tag , ,they had spent the whole day there and had only packed up as the sun was going down , grabbing supper along the way cause no one wanted to cook when they got home. It was the next morning before anyone really knew the line had been connected , ,it had rung in the living room and everyone ran to get it , Savanna had been closest and grabbed it up and away from Jason who had charged it and was so close.  
  
"Hello ... oh hey mom , what's up?" She smiled triumphantly at Jason who just turned down his bottom lip and sulked away.  
  
Of course everyone had retreated as it really wasn't polite to listen in on a conversation. "Well if that line works then the one for the computers must be up and running too" laughed Amy , taking off upstairs to e-mail her brothers about all the things they'd been doing since she left. Trell laughed after her as Niki went back to stringing a sea shell wind chime from the shells she had collected up the day before. Jason and Matt were so engrossed in their video game that they almost jumped when Savanna spoke from behind them.  
  
"Jason , we did tell all of our friends where we were going right?" She had a puzzled look on her face.  
  
"Of course , why do you ask?" He hadn't even taken his eyes from the game , it was a silly question for her to ask.  
  
"Well mom said two of them came to the door asking for us , I guess they went to your place first and when your mom said you wern' t there they went to mine ...." said Savanna , a puzzled look gracing her face for a moment before she shrugged and sat down.  
  
"Oh likely some joker from school trying to sell something stupid" was all Jason bothered to to say , his mind to busy trying to beat Matt that the info didn't bother him much.  
  
"Oh well , if it was important they'd call" She laughed , Jason was likely right after all  
  
But the day had gone by with out a phone call from friends , just families and of course the school to confirm the number plus those who lived there. But tomorrow was the general assembly to introduce them to the school, to collect their schedules and even investigate the school before classes began. It was going to be a boring day but that was something they'd just have to get use to , either that or just get use to being stuck in this world instead of where they really wanted to be.  
  
It was five am when Trel woke to her cell phone ringing off the coffee table she had kept by the futon , after the third try at reaching out for it she cracked her eyes and grabbed it , hitting the ok button to accept the incoming call.  
  
"Hello ..." her voice was full of sleep but she tried to pay attention to who ever it was that was calling.  
  
"Trella , you sound like your still in bed , it's ten o'clock girl , get up and talk to me" it was her uncle , she should have known , he never did have a concept as to what time zones could do to someone.  
  
"Uncle Bryce , it's only five here ...... what's up that your calling anyway?" Sure he'd call to socialize but not usually long distance.  
  
"Your boyfriend was just out here , poor guy looked like he had walked all the way out here from town , was almost froze too , but it's not like he was dressed for alot of walking either" his voice poured his amusement out , she had always insisted she never had a boyfriend and didn't want one either but the kid that had been out there was adamant that she was his girlfriend.  
  
"How many times I gotta tell you Uncle B , I don't have a boyfriend , it would be hard enough with one of those but all the way up there would be impossible" she should have known , he'd called to tease her some more.  
  
He laughed , she must be pulling his chain now , course this kid could have been someone from the US come looking for her too , but that would have been a hell of a way to hitch hike. "Well maybe he was from down there , but I know the cup of coffee didn't drink itself so I had someone here at the table this morning"  
  
"I'll check it out at a more decent hour okay , now I really need some sleep , we've gotta be at the school today ..... tell Dad I love him too" she had giving in as to trying to make any sense out of what he was saying , ,her mind to fogged over with sleep to even try decrypting his call now.  
  
"Okay luv , but if he shows up down there then let me know just who he is." He chuckled , he wasn't about to tell her that he'd sent the kid to the bus terminal with Jennifer , she had to go right by Toronto on her was back to Manitoulan Islands , she did have a paper to run there after all , but had been more then happy to have some company on the way back.  
  
"Yeah , when I figure it out I will ..... night" she didn't even bother to wait for his comment as she shut it off and rolled over , ,it was just way to early for phone calls of any type but his teasing just required a good mood which was not the way to describe her first thing in the mornings.  
  
One level up a second cell phone had rang , of course Trel had not hear it or she would surely have cursed the epidemic of phones keeping her from that little extra sleep she wanted.  
  
Nikita had woken when the jingle of her phone had sounded beside her bed , ,she'd rolled over , checked the number then hit the send button to hear her mother's voice telling Chase to remember his appointment later that day.  
  
"Hey Mom" she wasn't about to chide her own mother about the time , after all it was likely just a mother thing to get worried or lonely.  
  
"Morning Niki , I hope I didn't wake you but I thought I would call and ask you why you never introduced me to the nice young man who came to visit me this morning , he came to call after you , guess he wanted to go out for breakfast as it was around eight when he dropped by , the poor thing look struck when I told him you'd gone down there to go to school." She was the one doing the chiding which had taken Nikita back ...... she didn't really have a lot of friends back in NY and no one that knew where she lived.  
  
"Whoa ... slow down mom , what guy .... I don't have many friends left there , besides Jess that is , besides everyone from school knew I'd won a scholarship so why would I stick around there , a much better aquatics program was available down here." Niki was now confused , she looked at the clock to check the time and did the calculating that the time zones added to the time. "Besides mom .... it's like ten over there , if he was there at eight then why didn't you call me so I could find out who it was"  
  
"Awh dear , you still do need your sleep , what college kid is up at eight when there is no school after all , I figured I would just let you sleep alittle longer"her mothers voice had gone from berating to comforting in an instant.  
  
"Well actually it's like five I think , but that's okay , I had to wake up sooner or later" her own mind lost as to who would come looking for her. "Are you sure it wasn't Jess though?"  
  
"No , he was shorter with black hair dear" her voice having been interrupted by Chase as he shouted from the background "Why didn't she tell us she had a secret admirer , he seemed to quiet during breakfast for her to have really known him much"  
  
"Mom , you invited him in for breakfast" now she was wide awake , her mom was sweet but a total stranger at the breakfast table was something to worry about in her books.  
  
"Well he did arrive while we were eating , I just invited him in to join us , he looked almost upset when I told him you weren't here" she countered , she hadn't really thought about it much , she just wanted the poor guy to feel better.  
  
"Don't worry about it mom , was likely just someone from class that figured I was gonna stick around or something , if you see him then just give him the phone number , I'm sure we can get it figured out" she laughed , her Mom would never change , anything for a friend.  
  
"Well I did , I gave him the number and the address incase he wanted to write you so you'll likely hear from him soon" her Mom cheered up instantly , hopefully this time she'd get a boyfriend out of it all , she'd been alone way to long and besides Angel she really hadn't made much in friends.  
  
"Okay , thanks Mom , but all the same I think I might just try for a little more sleep still , I'll call you after the introduction ceremony and let you know how it went okay?" Well with that problem solved there was little else to do but try to curl back up and go to sleep.  
  
"Okay , you have fun and say hi to everyone for me will you?" She had met them all a few times and they seemed like good kids , well she knew Angel real well so she had to send her best wishes along to them all.  
  
"Yes Mom , night" she grinned and hung up , okay so she wasn't as worried as she should be , her Mom was a pretty good judge of character and if she said the kid was okay then she'd be willing to believe her.  
  
The whole house came to life about the same time , they had all set the alarm clock and even the snooze button couldn't stop the day from passing them by , and with a few loud grumbles they left on foot for the school , five minutes really did not warrant breaking out car keys and a few hours later they had all met up in the lunch room for a break and to compare their courses.  
  
After that they'd split up again to check out the classes , with the general assembly over and done with they had the afternoon to themselves to meet the teachers and find all the rooms , almost as fun as a treasure hunt without the actual treasure.  
  
It was Jason that had noticed something was wrong first , he had left the school as he lost interest in this meet the teacher thing , that was a parents kind of thing so he'd just found the classes and left , he was half way back to the apartment when he heard it , his alarm was going off and it was no where near quiet either.  
  
When he got there the door was wide open but not a soul in sight , he went in and checked around after turning the noise off but it didn't look like a single person had even been caught in it which disappointed him , Matthew , Nikita , and Trel clattered in not to long afterwards , having gotten reports about alot of noise coming from an old factory just off campus.  
  
"Man , I don't believe this ..... this thing should have caught them , no one could have gotten out of it ...." Jason raged on , the nets having been cut and not so much as even a little drop of blood on the floor.  
  
"Jason , what's going on , the whole campus knows about the noise by now" was all Matt got in before Jason turned , his face contorted in rage at the destruction of his invention.  
  
"How the hell do I know , I just got here and had time to check over these ones , haven't even had time to check the rooms or upstairs yet" he said as he threw his hands up.  
  
"Okay , Niki check the bedrooms , Trel check the common rooms , I'll check around the outside incase they are still here and Jas , you check the cameras , see if they picked anything up" Matt knew they needed a plan but Jason was already flipping out so this would just have to do till they had some solid info.  
  
Trel ran for the pool room , from there up the stairs that lead to their storage room , a small gym , the computer room and then finally the roof while Nikita had gone upstairs first and started looking in her room , then took the shortcut over to Matt's room , passed by the storage room to check Amy's room , then down the stairs in the Greenhouse/pool room to check Trels , Savannas and finally Jasons room before coming back into the living room looking flustered.  
  
"I don't know about the rest of you guys but my room's been riffled through , all the rooms looked messed really , but no one was in em ...." she said , her eyes more on the video Jason was playing back over the TV.  
  
"Well everything looked pretty much undisturbed in my areas , all but the computers which were shot ..... literally shot , bullet holes in almost every hard drive ....." Trel said as she came down the main stairs which surrounded the living room/ kitchen area , looking around for Matt. "The landlady is gonna be spitting bullets if they damaged the walls though"  
  
She had only gone a few steps from the front door when Matt was thrown in and it slammed shut , but when Matt ran into Trel they both ended up on the floor in a mass heap of tangled limbs.  
  
There at the door was Heero and Trowa , the later looking out the pep hole while Heero looked over what part of the group was there at the moment. "Well there's no doubt that they beat us here now"  
  
Trowa turned and didn't like what he saw. "Where's the other two , there is only four here"  
  
Trel had finally rolled Matt off her and had gotten to her own feet to see their company. "Great , we try to see the for the last few years and they come here , saves a lot of problems"  
  
The two gundam pilots did not look as happy about the news as the Americans did though. "Where is Savanna and Amy?" Asked Heero, concern actually creasing his brow.  
  
"At school I think" said Nikita calmly , that was where they all had been up to twenty minutes ago.  
  
Heero and Trowa look at each other in silence , silently considering something as Jason goes back to his video , knowing that there is more to this whole thing then they knew but it would come out in it's own time.  
  
"Fine , no one in or out till we get back with them , understand?" It was a direct order to Matt fro Heero , his patented death glare having been the enforcing point that left no room for questions.  
  
Matt tried to stand after they left but almost fell , Trel had caught him and was not pleased. "Matt , you been drinking or something .... what is wrong with you?"  
  
"Bloody dart got me , anyone got a way to fix that or am I just suppose to sleep it off and call you in the morning doc?" Even now he was trying to keep his humor ..... if those two were here then it was likely all of them were , but would they have sent Relena with them , that was just what he hoped he was going to wake up too.  
  
"Nik , you got something that'll help out here ?" Trel questioned as she pulled him towards the couch , that got Jason up off his duff to help pull him towards the couch.  
  
"I'm good , go with her , they've gotten in once and I don't wanna chance them getting in again" was all Trel said , Matt may have been bulky but it wasn't beyond her own abilities to drag him over to a couch.  
  
Jason raced up after Niki while Trel laid their leader out on the couch , the only thing she could have done was already way past , she pulled the dart out but to even bother cutting his leg would be pointless now , this stuff had been there for more then just a moment so it couldn't be contained now.  
  
Just then her cell phone rang from her bedroom , she ran in and grabbed it , grabbing her sword off the wall before she left the room , shutting the door and answering the phone." Hello ...?"  
  
"Trel , we've got a real problem , I've just had a guy trailing me all over the school , I think I lost him but Amy and I were just paged through the office ..... what the hell is going on." It was Savanna's voice on the other end.  
  
"Okay , where exactly are you , I'll grab Jason and we'll come get you" she was not about to ignore her friend no matter what Yuy said.  
  
"I hid out in the weight room at the school , it's dark enough but that doesn't answer my question."  
  
Trel shook her head and walked back to the living room. "When your boyfriend explains it to us then you'll know as much as we do , just stay there and we'll get you , stay hidden though."  
  
She shut the phone off and grabbed Jason , leaving Niki the sword just incase it was needed. "If they get back before we do then we are headed to the weight room for Savanna." She told Niki quietly , she wasn't sure about whether the place had been bugged but was not about to take any chances. "Use the sword if you need it okay?"  
  
Niki smiled alittle and nodded , Trel grabbed Jason and they left the door , locking it behind them as they set out at a dead run towards the school.  
  
Ten minutes later the two pilots had returned empty handed and not looking to pleased about it either , they had paged Amy and Savanna to the office then had looked around but to no avail.  
  
"Hey , did Jason and Trel find you , they had a call from Savanna and went to the weight room to get her , they did find you guys right?" Nikita's voice was full of worry , she had found something to counter most of what ever was in Matt's system but he was still groggy which definetly made for bad company so she had been happy to see someone finally return.  
  
They would have answered her but there was a knock at the door , Trowa carefully slid up to it and checked outside before opening it to admit a very out of breath Quatre , followed by Jason and Wufei looking just as red in the face.  
  
"Well well , one of the lost sheep rounded up , any sign of the other three?" Heero asked , not even bothering to let them catch their breath.  
  
"What do you expect Yuy , we were lucky to find this one and he ran into us when it comes to it ....." Wufei's quiet voice came.  
  
"What the hell is going on and where the hell is Savanna?" Jason finally blew , they'd made it to the gym with no problems but there had been no sign of Savanna anywhere , that was when they heard footsteps coming from within the room and split up , hoping to cause more then just alittle confusion to whom ever it was that was moving around.  
  
"The party can start now , we've finally made it" came a voice from the front door which ended up being met by four pistols pointed in that very direction.  
  
"Hey okay , not my fault it's just not a party without me" joked Duo , Relena well hidden behind him as he reached back and scratched the very spot where his braid left his head in a relaxed manner.  
  
"Shut the door Duo , we don't need to lose anymore then we already have" snapped Wufei , he was really just not in the mood for the loud young man at the moment.  
  
Duo turned and shut the door , leaving Relena to walk in , and notice an almost sleeping Mat laying on the couch. "Oh no , what happened to him"  
  
Quatre's shoulders hunched , they had been to late to warn them about this and now they'd lost half the group. The other side had won this time and the bad thing was that these plans had been tripped across almost a week ago but they couldn't find the American pilots to have protected them , but with half the group still here that was the only thing they had to their advantage. 


	3. Going back home

Very few computers had managed to survive the shooting , but no one had really been searching out for anything computer related which meant the cell phones and lap tops had come through the whole ordeal unscathed. The Gundam boys checked and secured the building bringing anything that could send or receive e-mails to the living room , those were going to be needed if the docs were going to contact them.

Niki had gone to the kitchen to make some drinks as this was likely to be a long process and it seemed Relena had Matt well in hand , of course she was followed by Wufei who had offered to help out but really he had just wanted away from the fit that Duo was throwing. Heero had focused more on trying to track where the others had been taken while Trowa backed Quatre up in trying to get Jason to calm down. 

"Why would anyone want a bunch of college kids?" Nikita asked Wufei , trying to figure it all out and thanking her lucky starts she had not gone with the lab assistant to check out some of the tanks he had offered to give her a personal tour of earlier.

Wufei stopped getting the cups down and almost seemed to stare off into space for a moment , trying to find the right words for this. "We did not find out the reasoning behind it , just a sketch plan to take your group where they felt the safest. In our dimension you would have been guarded , either by each other or by our presence , but here ..." he let it fall away to silence.

"Here we are just ordinary kids again , no reason to bother hiding ourselves right?" She finished for him , it was true that they hadn't bothered to hide away and had put every effort forward incase the original pilots had wanted to find them , but since the phone lines had been working for such a short time they hadn't even tried , they had given up on the others looking for them and had concentrated on just getting back.

He nodded , in his own dimension most of them worked as Preventers so they had relaxed some but not nearly enough to become easy targets , and that whomever it was that now worked against them thought that going after the American counterparts was better because they were easy targets had just angered him when he had first heard it. Now he was calm but the fact that they had failed to safe guard all of them had proved them right , look how easily he had walked right into Nikita's house and gotten the information from her family.

"They can't go to far and I doubt they'll get to far with the ones they did get anyway" she said trying to lighten the mood , she had seen Amy and Savanna practice Karate against one another in the gym and was sure they'd end up being a handful , and Trel had enough street smarts to get them back if they ever did get out.

Wufei would have responded if he hadn't heard music blare out from one of the rooms just around the corner and it definitely was not quiet. 

Niki checked the kettle before going around the corner and stared down the hallway towards Trel's room , door wide open and music blasting out of it. "He's not taking this as well as the others are"

A few minutes later both Niki and Wufei walked out , hands full of coffee mugs and tea cups , setting them down and returning with the jugs of tea and coffee plus sugar and cream. They had just about set them down as Heero jumped up to answer an e-mail that had popped up on the one lap top , almost knocking the chair over in his scramble.

The music continued to fill the bottom floor as some took cups and served themselves drinks , but Jason had gone to see what had Heero's full attention , an e-mail sent days ago finally being uploaded with the warning message , it had been sent 4 days before hand to Trel's laptop which she had insisted on keeping as a separate account from the ones they created for the college. All that time they had a warning on an account only to be retrieved by a computer that had not been connected to the Internet.

An hour later while they sat in relative silence Matt had started to pull out of his drug induced stupor but it took a small amount of time before the fog cleared enough for him to catch on to what had happened and the lack of his friends.

While Relena explained what had happened to bring him up to speed Heero had gone to join Jason as he again reviewed the tapes he had set up on the security cameras , trying to get even an idea of who they were up against or any kind of identifying marks they could use.

"Think we should call the cops?" He asked as Heero pulled up a foot stool next to him , it was one option but exactly how they'd explain it all was the part he hadn't yet figured out.

"Maybe , I'm still debating whether they'll stay around to try and get the rest of you or be content with what they have , my bet is they'll try again ... what we found was for 6 pilots , not just 3" he was distracted at best , his only hope was that they had stayed in the area which made the chances of finding the others greater.

"Hmm , what bothers me is why would they come here , wouldn't they be as powerless here as we are , what good is a Gundam pilot without a Gundam really?" He knew it could just be a revenge thing but that wouldn't require all 6 at once , and it wasn't like they'd come here without some kind of plan.

Heero had been wondering that himself , but he had always assumed it was just to get his own group , but what good would that do in this world as the plans they had stumbled upon was still likely un-known to have even been discovered so what was the connection. "This is looking worse every time I think about it"

The music again started up from a room that had the door closed now but at least it was quieter then listening to Duo freak out in the middle of the living room. 

Matt finally sat up against the protest his head had waged. "You don't think they have a way to get back to the other dimension do you , they did after all get two of our top scum bags there so what would stop them from doing it again."

The whole thing finally hit home , the only problem was how would they manage to let the other side know they were ready , that type of machine was not as easily moved and to adapt it to the energy used here would take a genius or two not to mention setting it all up.

"But we dismantled that machine after the last incident so it couldn't be from there ... that is at the Preventers head quarters from what I last heard" added Quatre , but that would matter little as they had not gotten those technicians that had created the blasted thing in the first place.

"Guess that means finding them will be left to time alone. If they try again we have a chance" Wufei commented , he wasn't about to give up on the others that quickly as Nikita did seem confident in their abilities which he could only hope was well placed for her sake as well as that of the others.

Quatre walked down the hallway towards the source of the music , knowing it was not a good thing to leave Duo uninformed but he also wanted to check up and make sure he was okay , if they were right anyone left alone was bound to be a target and he had managed to isolate himself somewhat.

He opened the door and walked in , shutting it after him just incase but when he turned around he was met with a room that barely had anything in it , the walls were decorated with pictures and posters but what little furniture there was made the room look huge. Duo was laying on what looked like a couch with the music on full blast looking over a book of pictures , two others lay on the table between them but his entry had drawn no attention from the other pilot. He went and turned the music down , then waited till Duo was ready to talk , he seemed off in is own little world.

When the book ran out of pages he flopped it down where the other sat and looked to Quatre. "Well , is it good news or bad?" 

"No news really , just a few thoughts being tossed around out there like why 6 pilots , and where would it get them in this dimension" he shrugged , moving over to the couch and finding an empty spot at the foot of it , hoping Duo had settled down by now.

"That's simple , the plan to rule in ours failed so they want to start here" he snorted back , sitting up to give Quatre some room.

"But with what , they couldn't get all their army and weapons here let alone hide a mobile suit , something just doesn't fit" it was the same thing that didn't fit a week ago but they had put the 'why' off till after they had the other pilots , now the 'why' question was what they had to figure out and fast.

"A Gundam pilot is only good when they have a Gundam to fly really" was his sarcastic reply which had been Quatre's biggest worry , if they managed to get all 6 and take them back how where they going to make them all do it. 

He had worried this was the goal but had thought it outlandish at the time , if they put them all in Gundams or Mobile suits what would guarantee the Americans wouldn't use those weapons against those who sought to use the pilots as the new enemy. "Duo , you'd better come out to the living room , if what you just said is right we are going to need to stay together.

They had left the room but Duo refused to leave the music behind so he had brought a small CD player along with the CD he had been listening to , closing the door and quietly listened as Quatre raised his concern now before them all.

It was the only thing that really had made sense , track down and grab the American pilots to use in a new war , the only thing left was to figure out how they were going to do it , how would one force a whole group to fight against their friends , but no one had come up with an answer for that one. Supper had ended up as a quiet affair with most wracking their brains for more answers that just wouldn't present themselves but as night pressed further on they decided to get some sleep , but no one was to be alone so they camped out in the Gym leaving a guard for each of the doors and taking turns during the night but the expected disturbance never did come.

The next morning seemed just as bad as the day before with one difference , they had lost one day and were still no closer to nailing those who were responsible for it all. Heero had taken the first watch on the door closest to the stairs to both the living room and the roof so when he had finally gone to sleep he had heard nothing but upon waking he noticed a new message flashing away on the screen he had set up beside where he had fallen asleep. He opened it and his face fell as he read it out loud for everyone to hear.

Dear whomever:

As the last message was received we have to assume this account is active so we have to inform you of our apologies , although we do not know how many of your once group is now missing we have confirmed that once again some of your signatures are now showing in the Gundam world which means we have failed in our attempt to keep this from happening.

We will have to assume those that are missing are now somehow about to be used against the peace keepers of that dimension and can only hope that this message reaches you in time , it would be best if you once again returned in the hopes we can avert this from happening and hopefully recover your comrades.

The Force.

It took little time for the American pilots to get ready , they had no idea of exactly how they were going to get there but they really didn't care at this point , the one thing they had been working towards they were finally going to do and even if it was just to get their group back there was a chance that after this they may just get to stay , it was safer in that world for them then it was here it seemed as no one had ever been nabbed over there.

They had packed very little , and returned to the gym quickly looking at each other with the same question written across their faces but the original pilots didn't look as concerned as they got everyone in a close group and pulled out what looked like detonators , long thin tubular objects that would fit in the palm of ones hand.

"Oh man , if blowing ourselves up is the only way to get back then I am not so sure about this" commented Jason as he looked at Quatre.

Quatre looked confused for a moment and then almost laughed but couldn't conceal the smile that swept across his face. "Nope , not that easy I am afraid , but it does let the doctors know were ready to come back."

Jason quirked an eyebrow just as they hit the button , and a familiar wave of nausea flooded over him as they all seemed to fall into blackness to which even the sudden stop at the end of the ride had not fully roused him from , but for the first time in a long time he felt like he had finally come home. 


	4. One down , five to go

What they awoke to was not the normal darkened bay with the smug faces of the doctors but the face of Lady Une the now leader of the Preventers standing in what looked like a technological maze shouting orders. The floor had not really changed but the entire deserted bay had been transformed into what at first looked like a busy outlet filled with people moving from one terminal to another , it had been the buzz of their talking that had brought the pilots back to reality , or what little of it that made sense after their magic hole ride back to the base.

There had been only one area left unaffected which was the one they had arrived in , that area had been sectioned off and it seemed avoided at all costs.

"Oh man , that thing needs an air sick bag installed" moaned Jason as he got to his feet , sure he felt a little less on the useless side now that he could get to Death Fortress again.

Heero stood and had acted like nothing out of the usual had just occurred as he went along to report to Une.

Matt recovered from his fall quickly to realize he had been Relena's air bag so to speak , she had landed on him which would explain why he had the feeling he had just finished doing a double whammy. 

"Well either that or use a net , the floor sure isn't any softer here" quipped Nikita as Wufei helped her to her feet , she had been lucky enough to experience that in space but it was no thrill to see what happened on planet , nor was it that much different either.

Duo was up with a bound and helped Quatre up , the later looking greener then Jason had. "Man , no wonder you guys didn't want to go back ... to face that every time you came here , did they ever pay you hazard pay cause that ride is deadly" his demeanor had lightened a little but he was no where near his usual uplifting self , not that it had stopped him from joking.

Trowa had quietly displaced himself from the group and was over near one of the monitors watching the info it was displaying about what looked to be a new mobile suit but the part that caught his attention was that it matched no model he had ever seen before.

"Geez , the data on that thing is extensive , can't believe it just disappeared" he hear two others discussing at the next monitor which he quickly turned to.

"What is that thing?" He finally asked as he looked over the data they had collected , the image of the mobile suit almost in a loop cycle it seemed.

"That is exactly what we are trying to find out , we just received this from an attack about an hour ago" said the one , the second one having turned back to his work.

"Trowa Barton" Une yelled across the room to him , he had been the only one that had not yet joined the group and she wasn't about to wait any longer , not that there really was time to wait.

He came back across to where the rest of the group had been standing but Lady Une had turned and led them out of the room and away from the garage.

When they finally stopped it was in a meeting room of sorts , the American pilots were sure this was the same place they had arrived in the last time but the lack of doctors and over abundant amount of Preventers had left this in question.

As they entered so did a separate group from a different door , their own doctors not those of the original team had filed in looking to those that had not been caught with a mixed expressions that ranged from relief right down to serious concern. And for the first time there was a female among the group of doctors.

Une started the whole thing off as soon as everyone had their seats. "In the past three hours we have had six different attacks ... mainly on Preventer bases or related sites. The unfortunate part is that we can confirm that each attack was done with a different suit meaning that some how they managed to get their six"

"But who are the other three ..." asked Matt , this whole thing was make even less sense now then in the beginning , after all how many pilots could they have found that was good enough to fly at a Gundam's level.

"I won't even pretend to know which of you are which so I don't even know who they have and the other three are just as much a mystery , but we are having the data sent here so hopefully you can tell us which one on that info" She cut in apologetically on Matt , noting that Relena has been sitting awfully close to him.

"Pegasus , Phoenix , and Unicorn" Trowa added , going by the symbols that would be found on their jackets had they been there.

"Pardon ?" asked Une , it was the first time he had showed an interest in what they were talking about.

"The three that were taken are Pegasus , Phoenix and Unicorn." They had never referred to the American pilots by their real names in public as that would make them easier to find by any one , or could even end up being leaked out so they had all decided it best to keep the info between themselves.

"Ah , so then we have Dragon ..." to which Matt raised his hand " ... Gryphon ... " Jason stood and took a bow " ... and Fairy" Niki just smiled , it had been a long time since she had heard that nickname.

At that moment a few researchers walked in with a few piles of paper and some discs filled with data , put them all down on a side table and left just as quickly.

"Well it's not as exquisite as going into a base and blowing it up but not all of it is paperwork either , some of the data is ready so now it is time to put the jigsaw puzzle together. I am sure the doctors would like to get back and start the modifications to your suits as well" she knew that this was not likely to put any of them in a better mood but it was bound to keep them busy while the upgrades were being added , the doctors having been given the same specs so their task would be easier and those who now knew their own charges were missing could now be free to help the other doctors upgrade the original Gundam's , not that anyone had known that they had even been rebuilt.

"Oh man , we skip breakfast to get here and now we're gonna bury ourselves in paperwork for lunch ... what ever happened to the days where we worked at the kitchen table and ordered pizza" Duo threw after Une , hoping to give her a hint that they were still human after all and did need to eat once in a while.

Jason let out a half hearted laugh which just propelled Duo on more as he got up and riffled through the stuff that had been brought in for them. "Gee , they all had guns , rifles or cannons ... guess I am the perfect choice to go pick the pizzas up then , Trel never used those kind of weapons" he smiled back , not sure if that was the good news or the bad.

"Yeah , you take care of lunch and we'll cover this , that way when the second round comes in we will have someone ready to look it over" said Heero , who had already come over to start in on a stack . "And don't take the bike , makes you to easy to spot and those pizzas will be stone cold by the time you get back."

"Hey Duo , take the Silver Z24 , no one knows that car so it'll likely be the safest" snickered Niki , still trying to figure out if she had just witnessed one of those rare moments everyone insisted Heero did have.

Duo grinned and was gone , of course any excuse to get out of this stuffy base was fine by him , he hated being stuck in one place for long periods of time anyway but in his hurry he had forgotten to get any preferences for their orders , but how many different kinds of pizzas could they have anyway.

From the very beginning it was clear what these new suits had been modeled after , the outlay of Wing Zero was on top of every pile that had been set , each pile had information on just one of the unidentified suits which still left three to be delivered. The odd part was that they were all black in color but the different weapons and attack methods was about the only thing that marked them as different from one another.

Une had popped down to check on the progress of the doctors and their modifications , not that she was concerned about whether it was being done properly but for some time to think on her own. This whole mess had started with a few missing bits of information from the main office , they thought they had it all tracked down to a pair of petty black marketers selling what ever they could but when they went to intercept the information they found more then they had bargained for. Things that there was no way could have been gotten out of a few missed pieces of discarded draft notes. This was information that had been publicly denied like the existence of a second set of Gundams and pilots , that kind of knowledge could have started a panic so it had been kept quiet but now it seemed open for the entire black market to acquire , the unfortunate part was someone had already gotten it which left that lose end to be quickly tracked down before it could be used.

She had sent Heero and Duo after it , they knew best what kind of consequences would result from that slipping out while she had gone looking for exactly how that kind of this had been slipped out unknown. She had not ben ready for what happened next , the two Preventers she had sent out came back with nothing more  
then some encrypted files they had found in a hastily packed room , they could only assume the news had gotten around about the earlier bust and were in the process of figuring out what they had found when two traitors had been discovered in the main office. She was thankful it hadn't been until after the discs had been de-coded that the doctors had stepped forward with what little they had salvaged from the Mariemaia scandal , of course they had worked on rebuilding them adding in a new device or two and were sorely disappointed that almost nothing had been found of Wing Zero but they were sure it had been beyond any help after the beating it had been through.

"Lady Une , incoming message from Milliardo and Noin" a voice announced near by.

She walked over to the nearest terminal , relief flooded through her as it had been the first time they had reported in since this started. "Une here , report"

Noin's face showed on the screen , the picture showing the distortion but the voice was understandable and seemed to be in good spirits. "Not much to report , the Terra forming is going well and with the slow trickle of supplies we can transport at once it's barely been enough to keep us busy. I'm sending the updated progress report along but I get the feeling this wasn't just a progress report" she accused Une with curiosity.

"Nothing amiss up there , unexplained workers or things going missing?" was all Une asked.

"No , should we be expecting trouble , I'm sure that if you wanted I could get Zecks ..." but she had been cut off by Une , a small smile on her face as she had done it.  
  
"No , just some small problems down here and I had hoped it had not reached that far" well she now knew of two pilots they could rule out safely but who did that leave.

Duo came back with 5 different pizzas and a huge grin , he had needed the break from the building stress and put them down on the closest surface so everyone could help themselves. "So any luck yet?"

"Yeah , we know the first one is out to destroy , it doesn't matter what just destroy it , second one works on the opposite sides disadvantages and runs when the tide turns , third one has a good working strategy , like the whole thing was planned out days before hand. Other then that with just the videos of the other three I would say the fourth takes out what ever stands between it and where it wants to go then it's like the rest just don't matter , number five appears and disappears , leaving the targeted area in shambles and the sixth starts shooting as soon as it enters the target area." Heero filled him in , six sets of tapes played , each showing the different styles and slightly varying weapons.

"Well that's all good but have you figured out which one is which yet?" Duo asked before he grabbed a slice from the closest box and bit into it.

"Hmmm ... no , and the video expert is on that side" he answered Duo sarcastically , it might have been easier had there been something to compare the tapes to but even that option had been taken from him which made this more frustrating then before.

"Okay , leave me my neck at least here" he backed up , slice in hand and was almost knocked on his face as the door opened.

"We need 6 pilots and now , they've joined up to take out a space port not far from here" the mushroom headed doctor was met with stunned amazement as that had been the last person anyone had expected to see burst in.

Matt stood a moment later followed by Jason and Niki but no one disputed the final three to walk out of the room for the main bay. Heero, Trowa and Duo had taken this personally and definitely wanted first crack at the nut job who had just put them all through this threat.

When they had entered there was a great debate going on about which set of suits were going to be used , in the public eye those of the original Gundams were suppose to be destroyed which stood tall and proud along the one side of the bay , drawing more then just one amazed gasp and using the second set would be to reveal that yes there was more then just one set but to use the second set might also be the small advantage they needed , something to shock their former pilots into a mistake or something similar but the draw back was the former pilots also knew the limitations of that set as well.

"Well then , with that decided ..." Jason laughed , winked at the rest of the group and ran towards his own , he wasn't waiting anymore and didn't give a damn for public relations , they could clean up the mess after it was made.

The others had followed suit , each heading to their own Gundams and ignoring the shouts from both sets of doctors. They had all just managed to get comfortable when Une appeared on screen looking rather bemused.

"Well since you easily solved that issue here is the location , make sure damage to all public sectors is kept to a minimal and good luck" her transmission ended and a copy of the map appeared on the side screen along with a split screen of what ever transmissions they could track from the base , but all of them seemed to be from Preventers.

It hadn't taken long to converge on the location so it was no surprise that not all of the other suits had cleared out , from what they could figure out 1 , 2 , and 6 were still in the area tearing up what little remained.

The first one had just sent a spray of missiles that had at one point been cleverly hidden on the arms of the Gundam , a cloud of smoke raised from what was once a runway , making sure there was going to be no help from that route and taking out a few storage hangers along the side as well.

The second had taken to hunting down anything that moved , of course in a world of peace that meant military enforcement vehicles and what ever hero decided to come close enough to pose a threat , but even that was laughable at best.

The third had been targeting anything that had not yet been destroyed and was using it for target practice , like it wanted to fine tune it's skills.

"Well , which one we going to take home with us today" asked a trigger happy Jason , looking over the three below them like a cat would watch fish swimming.

"Jason , just remember those could be ours down there so just work to disable" the familiar monotone answered him , Heero was not about to risk loosing these three when they were so close to them. "Split into three groups?"

"Sounds good to me" growled Duo , not bothering to see which group was going after which one of the Wing look alike , he had decided to go after the most destructive one intent on rocking his world , fast , hard , and with no warning for it either. He was backed by Heero and both came in blazing guns at the non vital parts of their prey.

Matt and Jason had both swooped for the second but it hadn't taken long for him to notice things were starting to get hot under the collar , of course it turned and was going to give them a reason to hurry as it retreated , hoping to hide and get around to their backs but with most of the area flattened he was going to be searching for a little while.

The long shooter had drawn two sharp shooters. Trowa and Nikita had headed in his direction and although he had taken a few shots only one had even come close , that was when both Trowa and Nikita opened fire and had to do some fancy work to try and follow it's swift climb upwards as it made it's quick get away.

The only one left had used it's missiles already and was almost crippled by the attack the other two pilots had preformed on it's legs , all that was left to do was get the arms to stabilize what was left and drop the hatch , once that lowered both Duo and Heero had stopped firing , bringing their own Gundams to the ground. What happened next was the last thing they had expected , a black streak shot from the downed ramp just as the remains of the suit blew , causing a shock wave almost powerful to knock the other two down but it had done as planned , it covered the pilot's escape and had knocked them more then just a few feet away.

The down side to the plan had been that the other pilots had not been as busy as was expected and there not more then a few yards was Heavy Arms and Kodiac. The form dressed in black rose and started to run but had been to busy trying to keep from getting caught to notice the still falling remains that landed almost right behind it , throwing it once again to the ground.

This time it did not rise and was soon covered by the silver and white form of Shining Bird Wing while the fiery remains of the now detonated suit fell harmlessly around them.

" Now that's a fireworks show , who's the nut ball anyway Matt?" Laughed Jason as he moved closer to try and get a good look.

The blast hatch opened and Matt dropped out smoothly , landing near the body and walking over , that was exactly what he intended on finding out. He drew close and pulled back the hood of the jacket it had been wearing only to drop it again quickly as he grabbed for his watch. 

"I'm gonna need some help down here ... now" he choked out as his eyes followed the small black cord that led to the Discman , the music that was playing barely able to be heard as he helplessly ran his hand through his hair and quietly sat down. 


	5. Just another glitch

The base had more of a somber feel now , sure they had caught one but was it right to refer to the recovery of an ally as caught. No matter how many times they looked at it the results were still the same , this one had tried to escape and really didn't have a problem with self detonating to do so either leaving everyone concerned about the frame of mind their other friends were now in. 

Sally had been in charge of fixing the recovered pilot up and of keeping the others out from underfoot which both had been a challenge , she had a kid that had made almost every machine she had used go berserk , making it hard to really check for broken bones , all that could be done at the moment was to remove the metal support rod from her side and clean up the side of her head where a nasty gouge had been. Finally after a few hours of pure pestering she let them in , it would have been bad enough if it had been just one or two sitting just outside the door but walking out to be the fixation of 9 sets of eyes was finally getting to her. 

She had left everything that had been pulled of her patient in the one corner from the now blood soaked black jacket to the shattered shades they'd pulled from her face , even the CD player was there but none of it could be removed as they had not been searched yet. She had been left with nothing that had been brought in with her , there had been to much concern about the safety of the rest of the team to take any chances leaving the red head looking oddly out of place under the white sheets that now covered her. 

"I just can't believe you found remains of the Zero system in that thing ..." was all Quatre could say , he had his own run in with that system and couldn't see why anyone would want to jeopardize themselves enough to use it let alone for it to be a permanent fixture. 

"It just don't make any sense , why blow herself up just on the off chance of escape , what do they have over her head" yelled Duo , he had been quiet since he had seen who it was , Niki had almost thought he was in shock till now. 

"Well it isn't anything in her system" said Sally , glaring at Duo as she walked back in with a few results. "Seems the machines just don't like her but the blood work didn't pick anything foreign up ..." 

"Well at least one thing is normal" smiled Niki as she came up to look at the paper , but little of it made sense to her. 

"I ... " she quit right there , for the first time one of them seemed to be in better humor so to point out the fact that the results were not normal was bound to go over badly. "Yeah , we will likely find out more when she wakes but right now I think she needs a lot of rest and a few good meals." 

"Yes , next invention we work on is a net , makes chasing them down easier" snickered Jason. 

"How long do you figure she'll be out?" Asked Matt , knowing the sooner she woke the quicker they could get some idea about what they were up against and exactly where the others are now.   


"I'm keeping her sedated right now , best I can say is to try in the morning ... " was all Sally would say , collecting the papers and trying to shoo them all out , she had to report her own concerns to Une and since none of them had a next of kin here it would be up to Une to decide who was informed from there , the last thing she needed to do was burst everyone's bubble. 

The next morning had been an early one , they all started with a loud knock that disappeared quickly to the next door as Duo made the rounds to wake them all up , he had managed to stay out of Sally's sight all night but that was due to the fact that the night nurse had promised not to mention he was there if he promised to stay out of her way which had been easily done when he curled up on a big chair and eventually fell asleep. 

He didn't stick around knowing how much of a bear Wufei woke up as , having left his door for last so he could make a quick get away but as he ran past a few doors were opening to display a few disgruntled faces anyway. 

"Whoops ... " they heard him say down the hall when he almost ran over Sally in his rush to get out of sight quickly. "Sorry Sally ... didn't see ya there" 

"Maxwell ..." echoed down the hall as a door opened near the end , that had been Duo's cue to continue his hasty retreat as once again he ducked around the closest corner and did not stop to look back this time. 

"Good to see he's energetic this morning" she commented and almost as soon as the words had left her mouth she winced as she watched him retreat down the hall and almost right into Heero. 

Niki couldn't help but laugh at Wufei , he was almost as bad to wake up in the morning as Trel was , but this was funnier cause she hadn't been the one to rouse the dead. "Owh come on , we can still catch him if we hurry" 

Wufei looked like he almost considered the option but walked back into his room to get ready for breakfast and plot his revenge on the braided nemesis. 

Sally stood in the hall and waited for Matt to come out , letting him know Trel had finally woke up but was going to be disoriented as they had kept her on mild pain killers and the last thing she wanted was for anyone to upset her while she was stuck on bed rest. 

They had waited till after breakfast but were not surprised that Duo hadn't shown up , as they all knew where he had headed so when he had wheeled up to the table it had been a shock , but all he did was grin back at them while another one pulled up at the other end of the table. 

"Geez I hope they serve better out here , and who ever said I needed to be on some kind of diet anyway" huffed Trel from the other chair , she still hadn't gotten her things back but a lab jacket and a hair band had been all they needed to spring her from the med ward. 

"Duo ... " yelled Heero , it had been his shoulders all the information had been put onto so seeing her at the table was the last stunt he had expected from either of them. 

Trel started to laugh but thought better of it as she moved the automated chair over to the line up that was forming for breakfast leaving her bewildered partner in crime to face the angry bull. 

"Hey , she was hungry and it's not like anyone will notice her missing , well she's not really missing if she is with us I guess , more like a guarded escort ..." but he had been quickly cut of by a death glare that would bend steel. 

"She's wounded" was the come back. 

"She thought of it" he tried to defend himself. 

"Sally is going to kill him" pointed out Wufei , wondering if there was going to be anything left of Duo for his own revenge. 

"Before Heero does?" Niki asked him , seeing the rage build in the normally unflappable boy. 

"I just wan na know when she dyed her hair red again" was all Jason could say watching as she put a tray on her lap and started back towards the table. 

"What do you mean again , it was red last time wasn't it?" answered Quatre , having been one of the few that heard him over Heero and Duo's argument. 

"Well ... yeah , but she hated it , we worked two bottles of bleach through that just to get rid of the red tinges after we went back" snickered Nikita remembering every single curse Trel spouted and was glad they had been at Trel's place doing it. 

"Lets hope Savanna ain't that bad when we get her back , she'd be out for blood if someone messed with her hair" he said quietly so only Niki could hear him. 

Trel rolled up beside Heero and took the cup of coffee that was in front of him , replacing it with a different cup "The lady over there said you needed de-caf , something about cutting you off ..." she grinned at his bewildered look as she rolled back to her spot , avoiding Duo who had just fallen out of his own wheels to the floor laughing. 

After that the group walked her back to her room , coming face to face with a very disappointed Sally Po , who had been waiting for their return. One look and Duo was gone as fast as he could wheel away which got everyone but Sally laughing and brought Trel almost to tears with the pain she was causing herself. It didn't take long to disperse the group as a nurse came in and rushed them all out , she had been in a bad mood as her charge had just disappeared on her and this lady was not about to go for a second round of that kind of nonsense. 

That day had been mostly spent looking over the data from the battle before but was interrupted by Sally who requested the assistance of one of the girls. It was revealed later that Trel had chased her nurse off by calling her Hitler and said she'd rather ' kiss a mule then have a woman watch her bathe' which was the final straw unfortunately for the nurse. 

From then on Trel was under the group's care and against a few opinions she found things to work at which didn't really require much movement , she had almost dozed off when the others had finally decided to break for supper and they had almost made it to the sanctuary of the cafeteria when the sirens went off leaving everyone to scramble , Trel chose to follow the pilots into the hanger where she found the Gundams had been stored. 

"I need six pilots again using the strategy you planned out earlier , everything has been installed and the net has been placed between Jason and Matt's Gundam to lessen the confusion. Trel you're to report back to the med wing just to be on the safe side" announced Dr. J , but she hadn't really been paying any attention to him as she had been more interested in finally getting to see Ocasta. 

Commander C was the one that had to burst her bubble as he moved to get her attention. "Your not going to be much use out there with that hole in your side , but after the last time you can help by getting the med wing ready" 

Trel wheeled around and left rather despondently , she knew she couldn't fight but the last thing she wanted was to have her nose rubbed in that fact. She wheeled into the closest room and eased up out of her chair , grabbing the lab coat and putting it on , if she couldn't go out then she was gonna do the next best thing and cover them from the ground. 

Matt and Jason had been automatic choices , Nikita had never been in question either , but this time Wufei had decided to go instead of Duo who was still a little shaken after having seen how Trel ended up from the last attempt at reclaiming one of their own , he'd be more then happy not to repeat that again. 

While she had the scooter well hidden she had no problem moving around unnoticed which felt good so long as she didn't make any sudden movements. Getting in was easy but finding a secluded terminal had been a search , finally she'd grabbed one by the door , it was somewhat hidden from view which was exactly what she had been looking for but without her V-box or watch it was all finger work to tap into the tracking system and communication channels , by the time she had it all figured out and was settled in they had already made it to where the enemy was. 

Jason had the bottom edge while Matt had to keep right over top of Death Fortress while in the air. The others had the task of chasing their new guest into the net after ensuring the detonator was disabled , they'd chosen the second one since it was the first to run during a confrontation. 

There was little to do but watch the mouse run , of course Trel started to hack the com system to the opposing Gundam , she hated surprises and wanted to see just what was hiding inside the soon to be caught "Kinder Surprise Egg". Wufei had easily located and disabled the detonator which just left bagging the bird. 

She'd gotten it but hadn't been watching just how close they had been to finally springing the trap so their shocked expression when she asked if they wanted to see what was inside the Cracker Jacks box before they'd even caught it was amusing. 

"Man , why didn't you tell us you could do that before , then we could tell which one was which ... not to mention who the other pilots are" said Jason , looking back at the small window like the image had three heads. 

Trel laughed and pulled up the image of the whole interior , not about to get into how long it had taken her to hack just the one she had but hoping to give them some kind of early warning about who they were dealing with , displaying a frantic face of the male occupant as they chased him into the boxed canyon. 

"Oh geez , not him again , guess he's about to experience the shock of his life" Matt smiled coldly , flipping the switch to electrify the netting that was strung between the two Gundams and watching as he flew right into it. 

The screen went blank , the electricity had overloaded the systems and shut the whole thing down. They had pulled it off but caught the wrong one , although the enemy was now down two pilots this wasn't one of their own but Saddam Hussain. 

"Trel , were on our way back , the net should hold it so advise them they are going to need a cell ready" came Heero's voice. 

"Better make it a firing squad" snorted Jason , who had seen this guy more times then he'd liked too. 

"Jason , that's not very nice" snickered Nikita. 

"Did you copy that Trel?" asked Heero , he wasn't use to not being acknowledged. 

A few minutes went by with no response. 

"I don't like that , lets head back and find out what happened"   


~~~~oO{*}Oo~~~~ 

I know , I am evil for all the cliff hangers and other things but it is so fun to watch everyone squirm. So now you have an idea of who one is but believe me there is still a shocker or two in here so don't think you have all the answers. At the time Trel was writting this she had no clue about Treize so that should make you think about this being six pilots , and it's not Noin or Zecks *L*. 

Thanks for the great reviews , it's been fun comming online just to see if anyone left me any. Keep up the story Shadow , it's been fun checking back to see how it's going. 


	6. Friend or Foe

What the found when they returned had not been what they were expecting. There was a note left with the doctors for Matt to come to Une's office, which even Heero did not envy him the task of facing but the request was just for Matt and that put things in a bad perspective. He walked up to the door and listened for a moment before he went in , it seemed she was talking on the vid phone but soon ended the conversation as he walked in.

"Sit down" she said , trying to prolong letting the whole problem out at once and waited till he did. "Now ... we need to know exactly what it was that your pilot was doing besides monitoring your activities"

Matt had been expecting she had been caught as she did not answer back but why were they asking him what she was doing. "Well , that we know of she managed to get us an inside look of the pilot we just brought in, why?"

"That is all you know of?" Sighed Une , but she knew that was it , they'd found nothing out of place at the station besides the hacked authorization codes to use that terminal.

"Well after she activated his communications screen we could not get a response out of her , now would you care to fill me in on what is going on?" This did not sound like it was just a minor problem but still it was not his job to jump to conclusions.

She proceeded to fill him in about finding Trel on the floor at the console and the information that was displaying on the screen , the only odd thing was what looked to be something was being isolated to be filtered out of the audio part of the whole transmission but it had never been completed and since then Trel had not been coherent enough to question about it either.

He pressed on about having other techs try to isolate it but she had a few that looked it over and could not even guess at what she had been doing , and were right now checking over the machine they had brought in for any unusual devises that could emanate an audio signal. Finally she dismissed him to rest , hoping to find out some information from their newly acquired guest but unsure if they would meet the same blank look that they would received from Trel when she had been asked the first time.

Matt left but instead of going to fill the group in he went to check Trel , wondering what it was that she was trying to isolate , or how she noticed it over the rest of them , after all she had relayed the whole thing to them had not she , or had she been hiding it from them. Just how far could they trust her , it was not like they had really questioned her when she could not recall any of the information that she should have known about whom was behind it or which Gundam held which pilot , not even where their hide out was so the question was why now , why when they were about to get one of the others did she suddenly start breaking rules and hacking systems.

The window let him see in to watch a restless form moving around on the bed , being watched over by Duo and Sally with concern while his mind whirled circles , the whole idea of having saved one now in question as it looked like they were freely letting an enemy move around within their hidden base , and even taking every device she had been brought in with had not stopped her from possibly getting information to the other side before she let them know she was 'keeping an eye on them'. He finally moved to the door and opened it , letting himself in quietly as he gave Duo a small smile.

"Hey sorry man , I went looking for her but had no luck till I was called down here , did not know she had gotten up out of the chair" he said as he rubbed the back of his head , not that he had been surprised about where she was but to risk it without the chair had shocked him.

"She said anything yet?" Asked Matt , dropping his eyes.

"No , but if she doesn't settle soon Sally is likely to tie her to the bed , for her own protection" he said as he rolled his eyes , he had never seen being strapped to a bed as a protection thing.

Matt grunted his own disapproval "If she wakes I'll be in the War room going over what we got from the second one"

Just as he was turning to leave Duo asked "So who did we get this time anyway , no one was brought in..."

"It was not one of ours , we got one of the morons from the last battle so I'm sure he has found himself a cosy cell by now" which was where just moments ago he had been considering they all should end up until he had some answers , with that Matt left , making his way back to where he had spent the entire day to try to figure out just what was on that transmission that she had tried to keep from everyone else.

The room was empty when he arrived which he expected but a copy of the entire activities had been brought and left for him on the main table , he intended to get answers but it was not like he would be using anything they had not already thought of and the exact same machines were in here as what they already used. 

He took the disk and went to the hanger , what they did not have before was the opposing Gundam and although he was not about to trade his in for a new one maybe it could identify what no one else was catching on to. They had managed to replace a few melted circuit boards and reset the systems that had shut down before they overloaded but it was far from being fully functional.

He did not care though , it was able to do what needed to be done so he climbed in and inserted the copy he had , letting it run all the analysis that would need to be done to it , but again it drew a blank and was getting him a little frustrated , once again he reviewed what had been typed in but half of it made no sense at all and did not look like any hack code he had ever seen.

Finally he got out and just stood there thinking , audio was one form of communications , that was what she specialized in so who did they have on their side that could do the same , who knew her way of thinking that would understand this whole mess. He smiled , walked across the bay and up towards his own Gundam but stopped short looking Ocasta over , it was the only other thing that even had a chance at understanding it he thought as he fed the disk in and let the computer read it through , bringing the same data up that had just been displayed in the other machine.

The difference was that it recognized certain commands the other had not , there in the codes was what looked like a frequency setting , or half of one but that was just before the whole script stopped , for some reason a certain frequency was trying to be located and silenced but with only half of it here that still left huge gap in what she was trying to do. He took the disk out and was gone , if it took him all night he was going to find out what it was and why she was trying to keep it from being noticed.

When he once again came back to their work room the whole group was there , having just returned from supper and managed to bring a plate back for him.

"Hey illustrious leader , how much do we need to post for bail , you know ... to free her from San Quentin" grinned Jason , but Matt's sour face soon wiped the smirk away.

"Oh come on , if she could do that with all the others we could get our group back quicker" Niki added , surely everyone else seen that as well. 

"Take it up with Sally , not my department" he said flatly as he went to the furthest computer in the room and put the disk in , bringing up the part he had of the frequency and having the computer scan the transmission for anything within it that would match up to that part he had.

"Wow , guess Midii really ripped him a new hole" whispered Jason to Quatre , but the later was not so sure , it seemed a little colder in the room then a mere reaming would have brought and even Une was not that evil anymore.

Heero had a good idea what had happened , it was exactly what she said she was going to do the first time something did not seem right , they had kept it from the rest but there was always the possibility that getting what you wanted would end up disappointing you in the end.

Nikita was definitely not going to sit around and walked out of the room to find out what the hell was going on , Matthew was becoming as closed lipped as Heero was supposed to be and that did not bode well for them as a team , well what was left of it anyway.

It did not take long for Niki to find what she was looking for as she walked right into the room that Matt had left maybe an hour ago looking for answers no one else had given her. "Duo , I hate to make this look repetitious but what is going on?"

She received a blank look as Duo tried to figure that question out "Going on where , all I've known has been going on in here for the last ..."he paused and looked at the clock "almost two hours now " he snickered , as much as he hated being in a hospital or having anything to do with them for that matter he could definitely plead innocence while he had been here.

"Okay , she's in here again , Matt is in a real foul mood and way non-social , Une is no where to be found and I still don't have any idea what is going on" she ended , drawing a breath after her babble fit.

"Ummm , well I'll answer what I can , we think she aggravated her wound landing her on the floor , can't help you on Matt but he was quiet when he was in here too , no clue on Une and you can join the club cause neither do I" he smiled kindly , hoping she'd at least crack a smile.

"That didn't help" she sighed defeated , pulling a chair up to sit down and take a break for a moment. "Man , some days it just doesn't pay to pull your head out of the sand"

The God of Death just grinned , so she could make a joke after all , she was usually the one that seemed serious but he guessed one would have to have a sense of humor with Wufei around. "Yeah , but better then to get it in your eyes right?"

That did get a laugh out of her "You know it's no wonder she just refused to give up on getting back here , it really is the only place we actually have a purpose and someone that can make us smile ... " she jumped up , finally getting an idea" that's it , you just gave me exactly what I was looking for , catch ya later" she said as she turned and headed back to the rooms , there was one person that even Matt couldn't push away with his sour mood.

She raced to Relena's room , knocking quietly as it was growing late and she had no idea if the girl would even still be awake.

"It's open" was the muffled reply.

Niki opened the door and rushed in , shutting it so no one would find out that she was likely meddling in things like a busy body.

It took little explaining for Relena to be willing enough to pull Matt from the mood he seemed to have fallen into , she had actually hoped it was Matt at the door when Niki had knocked but at least she had a reason to go see him and not look foolish , plus she now knew they had all come back safely. 

He never even looked up when she entered which was going to make this just that much better , she walked up behind him and waited , looking to the screen in front of him but was not going to wait on it to finish before she acted , finally she pulled a chair up to sit beside him. "So what are we looking for?"

"I'm not exactly sure what I am looking for , but you should be asleep , it is late and we'll likely be up early again tomorrow" he didn't want to tell her what he suspected but then he really had not been one to keep secrets.

"Oh well , not the first time for me but you didn't answer my question , plus there really is no one else here so I can at least keep you company" she reasoned , she wasn't a vice foreign minister for nothing after all.

"Yeah , guess so" was all Matt could think to say , not that he was about to complain for that small amount of comfort.

"It looks like your scanning for something , like my radio when I want the local news on the plane" she guessed , the rapidly changing numbers slimming down to just two that were being looked for , almost like a game of slots.

"There is something on this disk that Trel was working on but she didn't get to finish it , just trying to figure out what it was" was his calm reply but she was right , if it was a frequency there would have to be something sending it , hopefully it would lead him to where the others were.

The last two filled in quickly giving the whole thing finally which he finally smiled at as he had the computer scan for that certain one and finally getting one of his questions answered as it found it. The only thing left was to track it down now.

"Well it looks like you got it , but why is it reading so strongly?" She asked , it was reading it like it was right in the room with them.

Matt took the disk out and it faded , but not by much and seemed to be going non stop. "Now that is weird , it shouldn't be that strong unless it was right above us , the needle is right in the red"

Just then the vid phone rang drawing both of them out of their research. Sally Po was on the other end when Matt finally picked the line up.

"I would have called you earlier but I had my hands full , your pilot woke but unfortunatly we had to sedate her again " she said , a small cut just above her brow showed she had indeed been busy.

He dropped his head , not exactly wanting to say the obvious. "Would she be any easier to control in a cell?"

Sally wasn't about to ask that of him but it might save on the injuries in the long run. "No , we can keep her out , but that isn't my call to make , it's yours"

"What about Duo , he is right there so why not ask him?" This was exactly what Matt had been trying to avoid , that kind of decision to take out one of his own team.

"He left right after the incident ... actually she seemed to calm down some after he left..." He cut the call off right there , going back to the computer and a wide eyed Relena as he tracked the emiter for that frequency he had just scanned for.

"Damn , no wonder she is going crazy , it's here ..." he said as he turned and headed for the hanger with Relena hot on his heals , having a good idea where it was coming from but still unsure as to how it was affecting her even if they had brought the thing in.

Duo was already ahead of them , yelling at the crew that was below him on the floor of the hanger as he started pulling things apart , she had told him to stop the noise cause it hurt but he didn't understand it , that was when she told him that it had to be inside the black Gundam , she hadn't heard it before she patched into that system so it was the only place she could think of but he hadn't waited to find out what was making it , he intended to pull the whole thing apart if he had to just so that scene didn't happen again.

That was when Matt had come in with Relena , telling them to kill all power to that Gundam which he had earlier insisted be turned on. That caught Duo's attention as he stuck his head out from the blast shield with a piece of the interior in his hands.

"Duo , kill the breakers up there , it's a transmitter or something" Matt yelled as he pulled the cord from the diagnostic machine , not willing to give it one ounce of power to run on.

Duo looked at the bar that he held in his hands then back to the circuit box with a smile , he did say kill it after all. Duo jammed the bar into the box and watched as sparks flew before he backed up and quickly exited. "Hey , how'd you find out , I thought this was a one man party here"

"Well she kind of told us , to bad it took me this long to figure it out" he smiled , no wonder she had tried to filter it out , it wasn't to keep it from them but to stop it from hurting , now all they had to find out was how something like that was doing it.

"Man , you guys have really gotta keep me updated on things like this" he laughed , he was more relieved then happy "I'm going back to the room , maybe Sally has some answers by now"

"You know ..." started Matt as he turned to Relena "... it has been awhile since we took a walk outside of this place , feel like some star watching?"

"Nothing like looking at stars to realize how small you really are huh?" She laughed , hooking her arm through his and let him lead the way.

~~~~OO{*}Oo~~~~

Okay , so I love reviews , can anyone tell?

Oh , and one more thing , I love to twist a story so it is fun to keep people on the edge of their seats. Banchy is almost done the next HP fic so it should be up soon ( I should know cause I usually end up typing it *L*) and it looks like she is going to throw twists at us as well so I hope we don't end up giving anyone heart failure here okay.

Catch ya later  
Out. 


	7. Two birds with one stone

The next morning everyone seemed in fine spirits , they had located one source of their problems and disabled it plus had two of the six out of commission. That just left tracking down four more and with a challenge like this and the results they had been getting that looked like it was going to get a lot easier. Duo had come to breakfast but had left Trel behind , explaining they had hit her with enough to drop an elephant and she had still managed to stay awake till he had finally returned the night before but had gone into very little detail about the destruction she had managed to do before they got that much into her.

They had taken the morning off , after all now they had a plan and someone that could hack right into the cock pit of the diminishing ranks so targeting their own pilots first would be a breeze. The alarm had caught Matt and Jason going head to head on one of the arcade games while Relena watched them with amusement , Niki and Wufei had been hiding out in one of the gyms running through their favorite katas , Quatre had been with Trowa getting a drink in the now deserted cafeteria while Heero went over the disk scanning for any other unusual frequencies that may have been missed and Duo had been cleaning his room and trying not to disturb his newly acquired room mate.

It only took a few minutes till the last one ran into the bay butt this time no one stayed behind , all eight loaded themselves up and didn't stop to ask questions. The waiting game was growing old and if they could they were going to try for two but this time it would be another game of blind mans bluff , hoping that the key codes Trel had used earlier would work for all of the suits.

It had been a secluded training zone , built on rugged terrain used to train experts like the gundam boys in different fields of activities , the best part what that the base disturbed no one so far from anywhere habitable which made the individual thing for themselves instead of relying off the more modern conveniences , now it just made for a bigger playing field to use.

"Man , if there was a place to compare with this in our dimension it would be a cross of a desert and the grand canyon and you guys actually let people live out here?" Said Jason as he swiped his forehead to try and dry it off.

"Yeah well it's great if you want a tan" laughed Duo , who would rather the warmth then having been stuck in a frigid wasteland of the same design.

"Okay , the base is coming up but there is no sign of the others , did we miss them?" Asked Quatre , checking his radar again for like the tenth time in the same amount of minutes.

"I don't know , spread out and check the area" added Heero , not enjoying the silence that graced the destroyed site.

They split up and started covering some ground , inspecting both the ruins of the base and some of the surrounding areas that lay near by.

"I don't understand it , they come to destroy something and run every time we show up , but you don't need a Gundam to destroy something" Trowa murmured into the com system.

"Did they forget how to fight ?" wondered Wufei 

"No chance they forgot how to fight" Duo groaned while rubbing a few broken ribs he had been dished out the night before and wished she had forgotten how to fight.

Just then a few missiles blew near the remains of the base that had once stood there , almost impacting directly on the chest of Heavy Arms as it checked for anything that might have survived.

"All right , a fire fight" yelled Jason as he turned to see the third Zero standing on a elevated outcrop of rocks.

"Well at least one will stand and fight" chimed in Niki as the others turned to catch a glimpse of the lone figure.

"Yeah , but not for long" came the reply from the Shen long as Wufei turned and started after it.

"Hey , just take it easier then normal" Matt openly said as he followed suit.

Duo sat back in Deathsythe , it was just one and he wasn't one to gang up like that. "Yeah , wake me up when your done then" he had just started to cross his legs when he to was hit by a range of incoming missiles .

"Guess that was your alarm clock going off" snickered Jason as he started after Heero and the fourth one, letting Duo recover from the blast.

"I don't think it was anything personal Duo" laughed Niki as she watched Deathsythe try to shake it off.

"Well we did say two right , so let's get to it ....." came Quatre's comment but it ended abruptly as Sandrock went down displaying another black figure immerging from the sand behind them.

"Geez the place is lousy with them" Niki gasped as she let a round off her Gatlin guns , hoping to give Quatre time to recover as well.

"Well that's just fine with me" came Trowa's quiet voice as he was up and after this new one.

"Duo , lend a hand and load those codes , see if you can get a visual on which one is which" and with that Quatre was off after Trowa.

Quatre and Trowa were taking turns trying to maneuver their own into open ground instead of how it would duck from one tunnel to another but while it had a clear path and knew they were gaining it brought a thermal saber to light and used it to dig into the upper arch of the tunnel , bringing it crashing down behind him and almost upon the two that were in pursuit of it.

"Oh man , why do I get all the desk jobs" he grumbled as he started the screen up , trying a few different variations of the code that appeared on the screen.

"Well if you have the desk then I am going to play as well" teased Niki as she watched Jason chasing after one , having lost Heero somewhere along the way.

"Yeah , you go have fun but remember , it's only a game till someone puts an eye out" he lectured after her , looking up and catching a faint glint that looked like a passing plane over head , but this wasn't the right color for a plane "What the ... guess this'll have to wait a minute" he commented as he fired the thrusters to meet this new comer head on.

Matt and Wufei had faired little better , the pilot of this system baited them in by letting them catch up only to smash Nataku into the walls of the over hanging cliff it had been careening them through in it's attempt engage their own plans. Matt having lost his fishing partner could do little but follow after and try to disable the detonator.

"Anyone seen Yuy , we can't keep chasing after this one till it runs out of gas" came Jason's voice from the channel , almost finding a pattern in the way this one moved.

The one that had first been sighted had managed to lose Heero when it dove for some of the caves , Jason went one way and Heero the other. When he had immerged from the catacombs he once again picked up his target ahead of him but instead of Heero rejoining him Kodiac flew to be his next partner.

"I've heard the expression 'when pigs fly' but when bears fly" he joked although his face was dead serious.

Duo had manage to climb to close the gap without having much notice taken of him , the distance closed quickly but it suddenly veered leaving him to alter his own course to try and catch it. Thankfully the other machine looked to be loaded down as it didn't meet the speed he knew Wing Zero could maneuver at but it didn't seemed inclined to stop so he did the next best thing , reaching out to grab it and turning on the electric field generator hoping to knock it down that way.

Matt watched as another black Gundam came into sight firing a burst from what looked like a beam canon aimed right for him , he moved quickly narrowly avoiding the impact but definitely feeling the energy as it missed him by mere inches. By the time he gained his former momentum the two were out of sight once more.

"I'm on my way Jason , looks like gave me the slip" he huffed as he wheeled the Gundam in the direction of where Jason and Nikita were now showing up on his map.

"Oh man , if anyone has a free moment I could use some help , don't feel like becoming a Duo pancake all over this nice scenery" was all Trowa and Quatre heard as they finally immerged from the caves they had been in , they tracked it down to a pair of quickly descending Gundams not far from where they currently were.

They moved skillfully managing To help slow the fall , the black shape having ended up a strain on just one was easier to manage with the three that now hefted it. "But Duo , I thought you always enjoyed pancakes" Quatre finally said with a smirk on his face.

"Yeah , but I have plans and they don't include becoming one" he snickered.

Jason and Niki had cornered their prey only to meet up with a hot response , it had turned on a set of flame throwers that no one expected attached at the hips and shooting almost twenty feet straight out , warming the already humid air within the Gundams.

"Now I know how all those cakes use to feel in the Easy Bake oven I had" babbled Niki as she raised the arms of Kodiac up to try and lessen the heat.

At that moment the sound of buster fire echoed all around. "Now guys , don't you know there is a fire ban in place for hot days like this?"

Matt had made it , aided by the geiser of flames and had fired down at the remaining suit which made it's way down another cave.

"Oh man , not this again" whined Jason but went quiet when the cave lit with a blue tinge as an energy net had caught the last one , a triumphant Wufei and Heero hauling a bundle that would make Santa jealous.

"Not what again?" Asked Wufei with a hint of amusement reflecting in his voice.

Jason's eyes widened as he thought a moment. "You ever tried out for a magician , cause I wanna see that trick again"

I didn't take them long to return to the base , curiosity driving them crazy as they carefully laid the suits to the floor. The doctors came over and took charge of one while the other took the second one , finally getting the blast shield up so the pilot inside could be removed.

"Cripes , that was Amy?" Jason's bewildered voice said as Heero dropped himself inside to pick the unconscious form up.

"We have Ms. Walker here" came a gnarled voice from the other side , but only moments before the lean form of Trowa slid himself down into the dark recesses without a second thought.

"Alright , now we've got a full house again" cheered Niki 

"Sally wants them before you start planning any party" called Relena who had walked up to the building excitement with a smile.

"Yeah ... right" Matt finally replied , feeling the worry lift from his shoulders as he closed his eyes with a smile.

~~~~oO{*}Oo~~~~

Over , what are you crazy , just setting the whole thing up yet but we had to give poor Trowa and Heero a small break cause yeah I am cruel but it's not like those two have really had much write time so I will be nice ... just this once.

The evil will continue in the next chapter ... now I know I am tired , I'm giving my secrets away ... NOT.

Out 


	8. Looking for a break

Heero and Trowa took their precious cargo down to the med wing for Sally to check over as the others checked the machines over to ensure that there were going to be no problems this time , now that they knew what had caused it which took little time.

Niki had gone to wake Trel up after hearing what had happened the night before , still laughing at their normally docile doctor going berserk and actually hitting someone. Even more strange was that Duo had taken her to his room , sure it sounded like it was safer then what was left of the trashed med room but if they start breaking ribs on you the last place you want them is sleeping in the same room.

Trel felt Niki shaking her gently and was almost tempted to pull the blankets up higher but thought different incase it was important. "Is the place on fire?"

"Nope , but it is almost lunch time" chuckled Niki at her sleepy friend.

"So you mean there is still the possibility it could catch on fire right?" she grumbled , knowing she should have just rolled over.

"Oh come on , got a surprise for you" she nodded excitedly , she doubted Trel had woken up since the night before so it was going to be a surprise.

Trel opened an eye and rolled over to look up at Nikita. "Is it a pop?"

"Well I'm sure we could find one of those along the way" Niki had almost forgot that Trel enjoyed her liquid sugar first thing in the morning , it was like coffee to everyone else.

"Oh man , wake me up for a surprise and it ain't pop ... this had better be good" she muttered as she rolled out of bed and reminded herself that she was gonna need a room soon , cause she felt out of place in Duo's room.

"I think you'll like it all right" was Niki's giddy response , she was happy that even though she hadn't been there as long as the others had, that she still managed to hold her own when it came to catching their friends.

"Where's Duo off to anyway , you guys didn't do anything mean did you ?" Trel said as she raised an eyebrow in Niki's direction , she wouldn't put it past her if there were more then one doing it.

"Got me , he took off with Quatre and Jason somewhere" said Niki innocently , which she was ninety percent of the time anyway.

"Duo and Jason together, now that just scares me ..." was all she could say. Jason came up with all kinds of ideas and Duo loved making things work which meant they were all in for a lot of trouble.

Niki turned to the cafe and Trel followed her , both grabbing a tray and following the line to pick what they wanted to eat before finding a seat.

"Okay , so you got me out of bed to see what was on the menu?" asked Trel.

"Well that too yeah , you have got to eat ..." she smiled back as her own eyes caught sight of Savanna and Amy walking in the other door.

"Great , what next ... fresh air?" recited Trel as she rubbed her face with her free hand.

"How 'bout surfing?" asked Savanna as she sat down with a laugh.

Trel turned to look at Savanna as Amy sat on the other side. " Or there is always mountain climbing"

She shook her head with a smile. "I do either of those and Po'll have my head , surprised they let me out of the ward without my mechanical prison ... unless they just ain't found it yet"

"Surprise" chimed Niki.

"That is one word for it yeah" grinned Trel as she looked from one to the other. "When did you two get in?"

"Um ... this morning" smirked Amy , still basking in the after glow from Heero's concerned eyes when she had finally woke up.

"Yeah , never seen two grown men move so fast , course it was a welcome sight to wake up too" snickered Savanna remembering the shock registering in Trowa's eyes.

"Don't quote me on this but ... I think they grew a little" Trel said in a hushed voice as the others laughed , making it seem like they hadn't been parted for the last few days.

"Well since Sally prescribed a good meal you had better grab a tray" said Heero who had now just joined them.

"Sally can be intimidating if she gets angry" added Trowa as he watched Savanna.

"Thinking about that gentlemen have you eaten yet , you wouldn't want her on your case for improper nutrition now" babbled Trel lightly as she started eating her own lunch.

The girls lead the other two up and handed them each trays as well , trying to keep from bursting out in laughter at the look they each wore.

Trel had finished before the others returned , she had light-heartedly faced off against Yuy twice and was not about to push her good luck , or his good mood any further. "I'm gonna go find Duo , make sure he's not in to much trouble"

"Okay , I'll hang around here for a little longer" replied Niki , watching as their team mates seem to be enjoying themselves at the boys expense.

Trel felt bad , she wasn't normally one for secrets and although she was going to look for Duo she knew the last place he would be was where she was going first , right to Sally which confirmed that the other two were just as much a mystery as what kept the machines from working on her.

But while she had been there it had not proved to difficult to retrieve her watch so at least there'd be one set of sensors that could find her next time something happened and with a few modifications maybe even able to stop her.

Once she was away from the office she checked but there seemed to be no problems with her communications with Ocasta so what was driving the other machines haywire. Okay so her next stop would likely not be anywhere near Duo but she at least looked while travelling the halls towards the main bay , looking for answers that still had not offered themselves up.

It hadn't taken long to do the modifications once she was in the Gundam but it would likely take the longest to manage a full scan and pin point exactly what was the cause of all their problem , but then there was no time like the present , she set it up and with the watch back on her arm she relaxed a little. That is when Duo had found her as she waited for the whole thing to finish.

"Hey , been wondering where you got off to , the others said you went looking for me" he smiled up as she looked down from the scaffolding.

"Yeah , figured I would get my bud here to scan the area for you since I was having no luck" she lied , but it seemed no one wanted her to know that something was wrong so why get them worried , or even bring it up for that fact.

"Well come down , I have a surprise for you" he said , still looking up.

'Great , and me in the middle of tracking this down' she thought , turning back in to have the scan paused till she could slip away and finish it then she was out. "I already know about Savanna and Amy"

"No , something totally different , but that was a part of it" he was trying not to spoil it but she wasn't helping any with her questions.

She reached the bottom of the stairs and had a seat , giving him her total attention. "Well , I'm all yours so surprise away"

He hadn't really planned this out but he felt if he just blurted it out it would look weird. "That's good news , so you wouldn't have a problem if we snuck off base for a party then right?"

"What do you mean sneak off base , you think 12 people are going to be unnoticed sneaking out of here ?" she laughed , it was not like they could just walk next door and have a party.

"Well you know what I mean , take a night off kinda ... it wasn't like you guys had a welcome back party or anything" he said as he scratched the back of his head. "And we do have them almost beat anyway , two really isn't a challenge"

"Yeah , guess it couldn't hurt , just no jumping on my ribs and we should be okay" she commented , hoping this was going to be an approved thing instead of just going AWOL on poor Une.

"Great ... by the way you don't have anything against bikes do you ?" he questioned , after all he didn't want her to drive alone.

They met up with every one else in the newly dubbed 'war room' where the others were chattering away happily , all problems having been forgotten in the upcoming buzz about getting off base , even if it was for just a few hours.


	9. It's my party

The party had been planned off base but since none of the American pilots had really taken much notice of the areas surrounding the base it was a shock to find that it was indeed the first place they had ever been in when they had been first contacted by anyone from this dimension , putting them a small travel from Quatre's mansion and able to use their own vehicles to leave base with. The doctors had quickly declined the invitation but since it would seem awkward to have just twelve people during a welcome back party Quatre had extended the invitation to those who were off shift as well.

Une had agreed to the idea but only as a favor , after all here were six people that she had never even known having been dragged into a war but only after three of their own were taken , not to mention it had been the happiest that she had seen any of the Gundam pilots in a long time , Wufei had finally been disarmed in his approach and demeanor , Heero could smile , Trowa said more then one worded sentences , Quatre was enjoying himself instead of distancing himself from the other pilots and Duo ... well most of the pilots were happier then she had seen in a long time , Duo just never seemed to change.

Most of the pilots had stuck to their own cars , trucks or bikes but a few did double up , Matt drove Relena in the Skyline , Wufei went with Nikita in the Z28 , Savanna and Amy each took their bikes followed by Heero and Trowa in the jeep , Jason showed Quatre the finer points of a Hummer and Duo drove the Accord cause Trel felt safer with 4 wheels under her rather then just two.

It didn't take long for them to cover the ground and find their own room and since this was just a casual party there had been no pressure about wearing dresses which suited the girls just fine and no need for ties or monkey suits to which no one complained about , thankfully it was Quatre's mansion though as there seemed to be a great need for the bathroom which there was more then enough to accommodate the demand.

Although the idea was to keep it casual rather then full dress it ended up as a mixture of both , looking more like a formal dress down , the result was dress shirts with slacks or trousers but occasionally a pair of jeans could be found among the crowd , it almost looked like a meeting from an office building with the exception that there were more colors to it and laughing was definitely not against the rules tonight.

Quatre had more then enough food prepared for it all and even some more modern music in total contrast to the classical music that he preferred and previously hosted in his manor homes.

The girls had the idea to hold off till after the others had gone downstairs to make their entrance but it seemed the males had another idea when they showed up at the doors to accompany them down.

Jason had coaxed Quatre downstairs wanting him to hear a song that was popular , of course he wasn't about to let Quatre know the lyrics in it as they were rather indelicate in their meanings.

Trowa was the first one , wanting away from the cat calls Duo was giving him as he knocked on Savanna's door. he was dressed in a black pair of slacks with a white dress shirt , a dark blue tie and a black unbuttoned dress jacket , he had been afraid he was going to be under dressed.

When Savanna opened the door to answer the knock she was wearing a black shiny pant suit , which complemented his outfit nicely. "Oh , I wasn't expecting an armed escort" she laughed as she took his arm and joined the others in the corridor but continued on down to the music.

They ventured downstairs to find Quatre and Jason greeting the guests. Quatre had on a simple pair of khakis , a blue t-shirt and a white dress shirt that looked to be made of jean material , but Savanna cringed as she saw Jason , he was wearing a pair of blue jeans with a white t-shirt , that looked normal for him but it was what she read off the back that had made her want crawl under a rock, It read 'Hostile , Agile , Mobile' , and at the bottom in brackets was 'and totally fearless'.

Wufei was next , he had chosen a burgundy embroidered silk gea with a his white traditional dress shirt underneath of it , complimented by the burgundy pants to match. He knocked gently on the door and waited a step away as Niki had been known to be a bundle of energy at times but what she came out in was far from what he expected.

Niki took a moment but the door finally burst open , music following her out into the hall way as what looked like a half dressed Niki stepped out. "Time to go already? "

"Oh sorry , I didn't mean to interrupt you getting dressed" he said as he quickly turned away , glaring at the others to even make a noise.

"Oh ... yeah ... I'll be out in a minute" she said despondently as he seemed to mistake her state as only half ready , she ducked back into the room and threw on a white dress shirt in place of the discarded sweater , re-appearing in the shirt and black jeans , having put her hair up in pig tails. "Okay , I'm ready ... sorry about that , I lost track of time doing my hair and make-up"

Wufei turned with a slightly reddened face , having been embarrassed at his own intrusion but being glad his outfit was red to hide the face the color while Duo snickered behind him. "Well getting the shirt on didn't take you to long , less time then watching Wufei turning red"

"Maxwell ... " yelled Wufei but he was intercepted as Niki took his arm.

"Now now , no fighting tonight , can't lose my dance partner to Sally's medical ward" she cooed as she led him downstairs while he glared after Duo.

Heero just shook his head as he knocked at Amy's door , he hadn't really changed much , he still managed to keep his green tank top but had given the spandex shorts a rest and slipped into a pair of blue jeans and covered the tank top with a white short sleeved shirt.

Amy called out that she would be there in a moment but he had not been expecting what she was wearing when she opened the door , she was dressed in black leather pants , a silver silk shirt and a pair of black knee high boots.

"Uh ... I figured I would take you down to the party" was all he managed to mumble out as he looked into her amused face.

"Why I would be honored Mr. Yuy" she replied coyly as she took his hand.

Duo would have laughed at Heero's stunned demeanor but he had already knocked on Trel's door and was waiting to see just what she was going to do to shock him , after all only Trowa had been expecting what he got.

"Door's open" she yelled back.

"You coming , party has already started and I hate being the last one , miss all the goodies" he laughed back , there was no way he was going to just walk into that room.

"Awh man , so much for that entrance ... " she replied as she opened the door smiling back at him. "How am I ever gonna do fashionably late when you wanna be there early?"

They took the time to look each other over , Duo had a blue stone washed silk shirt on with a black t-shirt on underneath and had picked a pair of black jeans while Trel had a blue plaid shirt that was tied at the bottom which showed her grey and black sports bra off followed by her blue jeans.

"Well we're evenly matched , ready to go ?"

At the other end of the hall Matt was knocking on Relena's door and taking a final look over the outfit he had decided on which consisted of a pair of cargo pants and a grey polo shirt. He had been worried he was going to be over dressed and managed to rule out three different outfits before this one.

Relena opened the door , stepped out in the hall and quickly shut it behind her , she'd stuck with a black velvet skirt , a white turtle neck and a black velvet jacket that was trimmed with a deep purple. Her eyes lit up as they registered who had come to escort her down.

"I think I'm a little under dressed ..." he expounded and shrugged away.

"Really , and here I thought it was a casual thing , maybe I should go change into something more as well" she mused innocently , trying to take away from his discomfort.

"I meant ... it is casual but that is elaborate" he managed to get out over his embarrassment.

"Oh , well I can fix that" she giggled as she took the jacket off and set it back inside the room "after all it would be to warm with a jacket on anyway"

The party was well under way . Nikita and Amy had managed to convince the guy who was playing the music to pay a song that Niki had upstairs which was from Mortal Combat , and while it played they did their own rendition of a fight scene.

Trel and Duo sat back laughing at it , they had it well timed but the look on Heero and Wufei's face was almost priceless. Wufei , the one who was so use to solidarity was looking at Nikita like she had lost her mind in her dance with Amy , and Heero was not so sure it was in Amy's best interest to be doing something so straining just after they'd gotten them back.

Matt nor Savanna were anywhere to be seen but Jason just cheered them on , making a note to practice something like that with one of them later as it had stolen the show.

Matt and Relena had gone to the outside to enjoy the slower music as they danced under the stars , it was less crowded and it wasn't like the air had a chill in it , the perfect night to hold something like this.

Savanna and Trowa had found a seat outside and decided to cool their own heels , between the dancing and walking they had covered the mansion five times over.

Sally had dragged Quatre up on the dance floor as he had managed to avoid any other attempt , but she was not the type to take any excuse.

The party had gone on into the night as they entertained the guests and each other , showing off how they had changed and grown while others showed how they hadn't grown so much from the way they were the last time they'd been together.

A bell rang from inside , maybe only a minute before the ground shook and the blast could be heard and seen , those who had been inside ran to the front door to discover what had happened while those that had been out in the fresh air followed the noise to look around the corner , all with questions but seeing very few answers.

From a distance it looked like explosions , big puffs of fire that lasted for a minute or two and were replaced with fresh ones just as quick , hitting what looked to me air in the darkness until one landed on the opposite side , the mountain that they had been using blocking all but the outer edges of it and the whole scene finally sinking in.

Jason , Quatre , Heero and Relena looked out over it from the front doors in horror while Savanna , Trowa , Niki , Wufei , Amy , Trel , Duo , and Matt watched from the back corner in shock as the assault continued to reign down.

"We gotta go , everything is there and there is bound to be a lot of people hurt" said Trel as she turned , only to be stopped by Duo.

"You ain't going no where near that place until it's safe" he said as he grabbed her , holding her to his chest as he continued to watch.

"And they have a choice" she yelled as she tried to get free.

Both Matt and Amy ran to find Heero and Relena as they had not returned from the inside , Savannna slumped back against Trowa and just watched in silence , seeing what looked like the attack that had plagued them all since Sept 11 many years past now , Wufei turned to look for Niki only to find that she too had disappeared into the depths of the house.

"Duo Maxwell , let me go" Trel struggled and did finally manage to get free and although Duo did follow her he had little worry , he had kept the keys from the car so she wasn't going to far.

Matt and Amy found who they were looking for standing at the top step as they continued to watch , Matt had come up behind Relena and put an arm around her shoulder , trying to comfort her while Amy ran up to Heero , happy to have found him in the crowd.

"I wondered how long it would be before they found that one" Heero murmured as he watched a voile of missiles explode along the rocky terrain.

"What , you knew they'd find it?" she asked him , her face showing the disbelief etched in it.

"They found all those others ones , secret or not" was all he told her , not giving away what he was now sure of , someone must have told them.

Matt stood beside Relena , he wasn't about to treat her like some simpering dog that hid under the bed at every storm for he knew she was stronger then that , he just offered her his silent comfort as he watched , wanting to take her inside away from this sight but being glued to the spot.

Quatre had gone inside , first going to shut the bell off as that had been their warning system then he closed his eyes and waited for it all to end , not wanting to see the horror and shock on every ones face and hoping to shut out the pain that seemed to float around the whole crowd.

Jason hadn't waisted any time , where Quatre went one way he went the other , he was not about to just sit around and watch the whole thing , it would be easier just to try to get into the base and kick their back sides with Death Fortress , the old 'bite and ask questions later' strategy.

Niki was already in the garage , having gotten her car started and was waiting for the doors to open and let her out when Jason burst in.

"Hey , you coming along for the joy ride?" she asked , making sure he hadn't come to stop her from going.

"Looks like a hell of a party , and I love crashing them" he grinned back cooly , jumping in the Hummer and was glad he didn't have to wait as the doors had fully opened.

Niki and Jason shot out of their own hiding place and took off down the road , not waiting for the others and not thinking any further ahead then just to get to the base and try to help out.

"Jason , you bloody idiot" yelled Savanna as she finally caught sight in the larger vehicle , drawing her out of her silent reprieve.

"This is not good" said Duo as he picked his own pace up but was to late , Nikita's car had already stopped and the door opened , leaving tons of time for Trel to make it to the opening before he'd ever catch her.

Matt yelled after them but couldn't be heard from the distance he was at , leaving him to regroup those that had stayed behind. He went to Heero , knowing three pilots wouldn't have a chance out there without their machines.

"We need to get our groups ready and go , their moving targets out there" Matt said , not caring who was around to hear.

Both Amy and Heero nodded , moving quickly to round up the other pilots while Mattt turned to face Relena with a small smile that didn't reach his eyes. "Tell me you will stay here , where it is safe"

"Your not asking anyone else to stay" she replied matter of factly , keeping her calm as she looked at him defiantly.

"No , but I had hoped to keep at least one person safe" he knew it was a loosing battle but still he had to ask in the off chance.

Well he hadn't said she couldn't come and even though she was no pilot she sure was not about to just sit around worrying about what was going on when she could help in some small way. "I know , but I am safest when I am with you"

Heero found Wufei and Quatre inside , filling them in and watching Wufei's face go almost white in his rage at the stupidity of those that had taken off , which Nikita was one of.

Amy had rounded up Trowa and Savanna , helping a breathless Duo up from the ground as they all came to the front of the house , not even bothering to change as they climbed onto or into their own mode of transportation , picking Sally Po up as a passenger and trying to catch the others before this night got any worse.

Niki and Trel sat in silence , just listening to the song that played over and over again , filling the communicator with it so they couldn't receive orders to return , Trel knew if it hadn't been for Nikita's quick thinking and loyalty to others she'd likely not have gotten away so easy and Nikita had really not stopped to think about what they were going into , just that she wasn't about to finally get back to have some moron destroy their party , knowing they'd all be sunk if those Gundams were lost.

It hadn't taken to long to get close to base but with the concern that they'd be found and attacked Niki followed Jason's lead at ditching the cars on the side of the road to get into the base unnoticed the unfortunate part was that it was still under attack so they'd have to move quickly to try and drive it off , they ran the rest of the way to their own entrance that had so far remained hidden and once they'd finally gotten in breathed a sigh of relief.

"Man , that was a fun run , anyone want to try it again" snickered Jason as a blast hit almost directly over them.

Niki's eyes widened as the entrance started to fall around them. "Run" she yelled as they took off further into the base and to the more secure areas.

When the sound of falling rocks finally left their ears they found themselves in the command center for the whole place as an infuriated Midii Une yelled orders out over the growing confusion that the attack had caused.

The trio raced past her and towards the main hanger , having been so focused on getting rid of the ones outside that they hadn't noticed the attack seemed to have stopped , but the sight that greeted them from the main bay was not a pleasent one either , the entire exit had been collapsed making it impossible to get out without notice.

"These guys are really starting to anger me" said Jason as she stared blankly at the collapsed tunnel.

"I think we are definitely going to need more fire power to blow that out" said Trel as she looked it over.

"Ya think so" yelled Niki who did not seem the least bit intimidated as she climbed into Kodiac , giving Jason the same idea.  
"Niki , that think is solid rock" Trel yelled back.

"Yeah , just means it'll be a bit of a challenge , but it would be easier with three then just two" she grinned as she sat down and closed the hatch.

"Oh man , why does everyone forget I am not a weapons kind of person" Trel said , almost considering using one of the other Gundams but not willing to face Duo with two holes in her instead of one as she went for Ocasta.

A few moments was all it took before the rocks blew out from the other side , finally opening the sealed hole and releasing the occupants that had been sealed with it.

~~~~oO{@}Oo~~~~

Okay , a long time but then a long chapter too , course with this still in mind it's likely the next one should take little to no time at all , I get way to addicted to an idea and have to plan the whole thing out. To bad I've reached 6 pages cause I had hoped to put more in this one , oh well , more incentive to get started on the next one right away.

Oh , and I don't own any of the Gundam Wings things nor the songs but to put that in every chapter is time consuming so when I remember I will remind every one of this. 


	10. Answers to the big question

In the lack of an enemy to attack the pilots decided to locate and remove the remaining preventers that were still on base before any one else ended up hurt out of the whole ordeal , so after a few hours of getting them all to one of the entrances that had been left unscathed.

The American team ensured the way was clear while the original team drove the recovered and injured back to the mansion using the Jeep , the Hummer , the Accord and a few others that had been in the area or had shown up when the attack had quit which had gone well , thankfully Sally had treated the worst on the spot so it really hadn't gotten as bad as it could have.

The part that was of big concern was what to do with the Gundams now , with the base evacuated and half destroyed that left the machines exposed and they were not about to leave those open for attack.

"Maybe we could make it like a hatch now" shrugged Amy , having a few ideas about trying to fix it up.

"Glad someone has an idea cause it's gonna be nasty sweeping Death Fortress off during the winter" joked Jason.

"Not to mention the flooding problem come spring" joined Trel who was almost finding the humor in it even if they had just blown a hole in the side of their secret base.

"There is always the other base as well" added Matt who had not forgotten where they had popped into the second time they'd arrived.

"I'd rather not give them something else to destroy" was Savanna's chafed reply.

"Next time we send them the cleaning bill" snickered Jason , trying to lighten Savanna's mood which did not seemed to be working.

"This time lets install a dog house big enough for the three of us" embellished Nikita who was still on the brunt end of Wufei's anger for her earlier act.

"Ah they'll get over it , no harm no foul" said Trel as they looked over the hole wondering if they might have gotten just a little carried away.

"I'm not saying that you did wrong just next time wait for the whole group" Duo asked as he nuzzled his face into the back of her head , having quickly forgiven her and being one of the few that had.

Niki looked over at Wufei and wondered how long he was going to be mad , sure she understood that in his upbringing that the males were suppose to be the fighters but she wasn't about to turn in her keys over foolish pride. 

"Heads up , looks like your gonna get your wish Duo" said Jason as he had just caught sight of a missile coming from across the landscape and headed in their general direction.

"Oh man , don't these guys ever give up" yelled Savanna as she ran for her Gundam , not even bothering to check where it had come from.

"Where's the fun in beating them if they give up?" laughed Jason , who had not gotten his fill of destruction by blowing a hole in the wall and was glad this time the target would be a challenge.

The first of the rockets hit just as the Americans had closed the hatches , launching 6 machines out of the smoke and right into the heat of battle seemingly to just have appeared as if it were magic.

The Black Zero systems were hard to locate in the night sky but the scanners picked them out easily , displaying them coming in fast and not expecting resistance.

"Great , well at least we know they're within an hour away" commented Niki as she opened fire with the Gatlin guns.

"Yeah , I can see that as helpful" announced Jason as the chest coverings opened to let the rockets hidden within fly at the two approaching machines.

"Not counting reload time , I'm sure that is the only reason they left in the first place" said Matt as the twin buster rifles took aim and he started his own attack.

That's when the lack of noise drew their attention to their depleted ranks , there were only three that had managed to immerge from the smoke they'd used for cover.

"Savanna , where'd you go" asked Jason , he couldn't pick her up on his scanner.

"I don't see any of them , did they come out of the base?" inquired Matt.

"I left after Trel so they must have but ..." the confusion resounded in Niki's voice.

The two black figures fired off shots but they weren't aimed at the group in the air , they'd been set to a target closer to base which was when Matt had finally found the downed Gundams. "Their down , what is going on?" was all he had managed to get out as he tried to maneuver his way into the path of the on coming attack.

Niki and Jason kept close to him but were just as puzzled , there hadn't been an attack that landed close to them so what had just dropped three Gundams. No one had time to even ask as the attack hit the three that were still air born , blowing them to the ground not far from the others that had been separated from them.

It was then and only then that the others realized the American's were actually in trouble and scrambled to their own metal partners.

The two figures shot off another round into the set that they had just taken down which took less time to impact this time as they had not stopped their swift oncoming attack and had successfully knocked them once again to the ground mercilessly.

Niki had once again managed to get Kodiac up much to it's disapproval and set off another blast from the guns. Jason screamed as he too managed to get back in the game , not exactly sure where the pain was shooting from but knew it was along his right leg. Matt had only managed to get his own half righted by the time the invaders swooped in , knocking Jason back to the ground and grabbing Kodiac between them.

Matt finally managed to bring it upright and pulled the Beam canon up to mark it's target only to find that it had become a close blob instead of two separate machines and almost targeted both before Jason had informed him that they had Niki. The unfortunate part was when his vision ran red in one eye which he closed trying to find what the problem was as he raised his hand to find his face growing wet.

Five moving blips drew his muddied mind back to where he was as he turned to get a lock on what ever was coming next.

"Matt , drop your arms and we will pull you back in" it was Heero , his face flashed across the screen which caused Matt to lower the beam canon to try and pull it all together again , looking over the remains of his own downed crew.

It seemed his was the only one still standing , Jason had been in the process of standing but relaxed when he heard the others coming their way as he had only gotten it half way up. "Last time I come bringing a knife to a gun fight , I want a beam canon , they sure ran when they seen that puppy pointed at them"

It was the last thing Matt heard as he let himself slip away , having felt two of the other Gundam's picking his own up to return it to base , most of the operations had shut down anyway which left him in almost total darkness.

They worked in pairs to return the downed machines to a safe bay for repair work , Wufei had refused to return to base as he kept searching the grounds hoping they had dropped Kodiac but did not find a single trace of them in his search.

Jason had been pulled from his Fortress with a piece of the interior plating having lodged itself into the lower calf , Matt had a good sized gash on his head and was out cold which had been thought worst at first by Relena and only after Sally checked him out did the serious concern finally pass , Amy and Savanna had managed to make it through with a bump her or a scrape there as the landing had not been anywhere near cushioned but Trel had managed to stay awake through it , with a lot of help from Ocasta who had taken her last comment literally and resumed it's scan when she returned , it had been able to dampen the signal but not to totally block it out.

It had only taken an hour before Trel shot across the room for the bathroom , losing her supper and likely part of her lunch to the sewer system , Jason had been awake but kept in his spot by Sally , Matt had come around but was not about to try moving his head which felt like it was inhabited by small green men with steel toed boots. Amy had snuggled up with Heero's jacket while Savanna still had not moved from where she had been laid upon her removal.

Between the doctors and the other pilots the whole bay was in full blown repair mode , bringing them upright and accessing the damages to each to which only two were even serious. Pieces were removed and replaced with older parts that barely even had a scratch from previous battles but the more extensive repairs would have to be done later as this was not the safest time still.

When Trel finally did re-appear it was in her space suit , snuggling into it as if she had been cold before but returning to where she had woke to watch the repair work for a moment then down to the watch she had removed as it would really do her little good concealed in her suit.

"What did we just do" she said to no one in particular as she looked at the watch , she knew it couldn't answer her without the interface she had managed to put into the V-box but she really didn't want one either as she dropped it , letting it land on Duo's shirt before walking out of the hanger.

Savanna woke with a jolt , sitting upright as she found once again she could move from the fetal position that they'd found her in without pain. "What the ... " she broke off as she looked around.

"Settle down , we're okay for now" commented Jason , he had managed to land near by to keep an eye over the whole group as the others where in a better position to do repair work.

"I'm glad someone is okay cause my head is killing me" she replied dryly , getting up from the floor and wishing she had a bottle of Tylenol to kill the headache.

"Here , try this , should take some of it away" offered Sally , dropping two pills in her hand and offering her the canteen she had been using to transport water.

Savanna threw the pills in to her mouth and washed them down , then returned the container before going to see if there was anything she could do to get everything up and running again.

"Not even a thank you , that has got to be killing her" Jason laughed , glad she'd finally gotten up but knew they weren't going to keep her laying down when she did finally wake.

Matt finally attempted sitting up after a half hour , thankful that they had a fully stocked pharmacy as his head had eased in it's pounding ways.

"And you wanted me to stay behind , you'd have been sore for a pillow if I had" was all Relena could say as she smoothed his hair back from his forehead , having been coddling him in her lap since they'd gotten him out of the disabled machine.

"Ah Sally , can we get you over here for a moment" Quatre asked as he approached the group , looking it over and was glad to see most of them were moving.

"Jason , you move and I'll amputate" she smiled back at Jason before going with Quatre , hoping Relena would keep an eye on them in her absence.

"Hey , it's not that bad , it didn't even hurt till you put stitches in it ..." he called after her , he was not about to let on that it stung before hand.

"Oh Jas , your loud" came Amy's sleepy voice as she rolled over and pulled the coat even tighter to her , ducking her face below the collar.

"Not my fault if my voice carries well" he replied , wondering how long he was going to be stuck to one place.

It was a little while before anyone came back to the group , it was Duo with a puzzled look on his face as he found Trel had not bothered to stay with the group. "Where'd she go off to now?" he mused as he retrieved his shirt from the floor.

"Got me , but that had to be about 20 minutes ago" answered Jason as he looked over what Duo had in his hand. "Wonder why she left her watch?"

Duo had plans to find out as he left in search for her.

"What do you mean , there is no way your going to go playing in my head" came a shout across the whole bay.

"Now that is loud" laughed Jason as he got up , taking his sweet time to cross the floor in order to find out what had enraged Savanna so much.

He could see Sally , Savanna and Trowa near the floor and none of them looked to happy.

"I don't care if it will save my life you are not going to put me out and play with my brain" she continued to yell , looking from Sally to Trowa and back again.

"Hey Savanna , you'll wake the dead like that , what's the problem?" asked Jason as he toddled over the group earning a glare from Sally.

"They've gone nuts , something about a radio jerry-rigged to my brain and they think I am gonna let them go explore in my head" she yelled exasperated back at Jason as she stormed away.

"Translation is...?" he asked the other two , no one was going to be doing anything without a damn good explanation.

Sally put a disc into a near by computer and let the results from the scan run for him to examine but after seeing his blank look she explained what had been found , and why it was that none of her own systems seemed to be working on the three taken pilots. It took a machine that could compensate for the Zero system to finally decipher the constantly changing disruption any other machine would experience.

The bad news was that it was connected directly to both the brain stem and nerve systems which made just pulling it out impossible , who ever had done this really did not care if the recipients had survived or not so long as he or she could control them.

He looked back at Amy who still had refused to sit up let alone come out from under Heero's jacket , then to Savanna who was walking out the door and looking no less steamed about their request and then though about Trel and how she'd just dropped her watch and took off.

"But how do we know when they are and are not being controlled?" he asked , now having an idea why Savanna had been acting very odd as of late.

"That's why we want to get them out cause if they don't drop we likely won't know till they fire on us" came Heero's voice , he had been in the shadows watching the whole thing.

"Well we can't lock them up either , those are our friends and they haven't done it yet" Jason rounded on Heero , he was having no part in this at all.

"That is all that kept us from doing it up till now , but it was close at one point" he added , watching Amy on the far side hoping her reaction to the news was going to be better then Savanna's had been.

Duo had found Trel after looking all over the place , she had gone down one of the destroyed corridors and was punching away at the ruined remains that was blocking her from going any further , she was moving to the beat played out from her discman which she must have retrieved from Sally's office and one would almost think it was a dance except the marks she was leaving in the walls.

"Trel ... can we talk a minute" he asked , wondering how long she had been at this before he found her.

There was no response from her , her eyes never left their spot as she continued to pound away , looking lost in her own thoughts.

He ducked in between her fists and almost ended up being narrowly missed as she flinched and her fist found a new spot to hit , a few inches from his head. "Hey ..."

It took a minute to register to her exactly who it was but she knew someone was in her way which puzzled her as she looked back at him with a tentative expression. 

"I think you need a rest , lets sit down , just for a moment okay?" he smiled , at least she hadn't thrown another punch he thought as he raised his hand to brush her flushed cheeks.

Her eyes dropped but she didn't resist his directions to sit down , but the confusion still showed across her face as it looked like she was trying to figure something dire out.

"Oh , I found your watch ... I think you dropped it" he started lightly , feeling discomforted in the lack of her usual smile or sudden out bursts he had known.

"Did we fall into a trap or are we the trap" she evaluated , she had managed to keep awake but with the blasts landing all around her that had been all that passed her mind since it had happened , she knew they had been used as bait but twice was just to much.

"Trel , do you even know what is going on?" he asked , lifting her face and catching her eyes with his own.

"They've got us over a barrel on a thin thread , they've got Niki , can drop the rest of us without effort ... they've got all the cards don't they?" she inquired calmly , looking into his eyes much like she had at the ball and just glad something was there to fill the grey that she had been looking at before.

"Not if we have anything to do with it , we will get it out so don't worry" he was sure she knew now , after all it had been all in her Gundam.

She just sat there like she hadn't even heard him , the lost expression returning to her face as he continued to sit there beside her , still holding the watch which she had ignored as well.

Heero had come across and sat next to Amy who had refused to move from her spot , or to open her eyes for long trying to keep the light out of her head and the pain from coming back.

"Well we know where the problem is now" he quietly announced to her.

She moved closer to snuggle up to his leg , peeking out from under his jacket. "There was a problem?"

He looked down at her , surprised she had actually spoke. "Yeah , the answer as to why you don't remember what was going on"

"Is it something simple?" she cringed , hoping it couldn't hurt any more then it already did.

"In concept only , but it does explain a lot ... Sally wants to take them out" he watched her , hoping it was not going to blow up in his face if he tried smoothing it over.

"Take what out , we would have found anything by now wouldn't we?" was all Amy could say , her head coming out from under the coat like a turtle out of it's shell.

"That is one of the reason's it seems so simple , but it's connected to the brain which is why it is complex" he grimaced , still weighing the risks involved in taking it out.

"I don't like the sounds of that" countered Amy as she sat up and put a hand to the back of her neck , she had brushed her hair enough to know it wasn't there but where else could someone hide things , she found the bump which rested just under the skull at the back of her head and cast a worried look back at Heero. "I really don't like the sounds of that"

Trowa had let Savanna calm down , he knew he should have done it himself but the words to tell her had fled from him when she looked at him , he hadn't even been able to stand up for her when Sally's description had made it sound even worse but now he had to find her , he couldn't let her think he was against her in this.

She had changed out of the suit she wore earlier , her room being one of the few that remained in tact and was now in the training room having just moved from the large hanging bag on the side to start throwing a medicine ball around the room.

Trowa leaned up against the door and watched , letting her vent on the ball rather then disturb her , which she did continue for another 5 minutes before finally dropping to her knees in exhaustion.

He walked up and just stood there waiting for her anger to hit him again.

"What do you want" she barked out.

"Just following my heart I guess" he shrugged and looked down at her , seeing the shock register in her eyes as the words she had said so long ago just came back to her in the most unusual way.


	11. The night that the lights went out

Later that eve with quickly repaired Gundams and exhausted pilots the bay lay quiet , the rest had gone in search of rooms that were safe to sleep in but most had to double up to keep the group close together , the four girls had all settled on one room after Sally had left to check her other wards back at the mansion and the boys separated into two different rooms.

It had been the dead of the night when Trel had finally come to her senses , well they weren't exactly her senses but she was at least out of her stupor with a plan in mind , sure that if they couldn't hear them then these frequencies couldn't effect her. She'd gotten up out of bed and tried to make her way to the door but quickly tripped over Amy who had pulled a cot up beside Trel's bed and was fast asleep.

"Hey , watch where your walking" she exclaimed as Trel hit the floor.

"What do you mean watch , watch how , there's no light in here" she muttered , pushing herself up from the floor but making sure to check before moving next.

"What are you doing anyway?" Amy grumped as she sat up , checking the time.

"Call it a brain fart okay , now go back to sleep" came Trel's annoyed voice in the darkness.

"Crainial vapor blockage at 3 am in the morning is a bad thing" Savanna yawned out at the two that were being inconsiderate.

"Shoot me" shot back Trel as she finally found the door and the dimmed lights from just down the hall , quickly leaving and shutting the door behind her.

"Think we should check it out?" asked Amy , who was already sitting up after the abrupt start.

"Is that a multiple choice question?" Savanna countered as she tossed the blanket aside , letting it land on the still form of Relena.

"Guess not ..." Amy giggled quietly as she too worked her way to the door , Savanna close behind her.

They snuck down to the main bay and looked it over , that was the way Trel had turned when she shut the door and with this being a good place to start they were not surprised to find her inside , she had put the helmet on for her space suit and climbed up to her Gundam.

"Where the heck are you going" yelled Savanna who had come in half way through the climb but she seemed to be ignored.

Trel reached the platform and righted herself not having even hear them as she sat down and started up the system , trying a range of different sounds and pitches to check over her theory , sure she couldn't test out the ones she already knew until she had the other two with her but a space suit had to be air tight which also meant that there was no way the air could carry a signal or current in it.

The screen popped up displaying the other two which were in the bay yelling at her now , she smiled as she removed the helmet to the commotion they were causing. "Hey , you'll wake everyone else up and I am not in the mood to deal with some of them" she yelled back as she stuck her head out of the opening.

"Well you were the one ignoring us" Amy yelled back.

"Not entirely , say now that your up anyone want to try an experiment?" chuckled Trel as she lowered herself on the tether.

"What kind did you have in mind?" asked Savanna suspiciously.

It hadn't taken long to get suited up and the helmets on , the bad part was that without the mode to communicate they all had to be in their suits when Trel broadcast the identified signals but no one seemed to notice and even Trel double checked to make sure they were all open. She shut it down before taking off the helmet with a cruel smile.

"Well that is one problem fixed , who's up for the real test?"

Savanna looked like she was almost contemplating the idea but Amy was not as thrilled about it as the other two were.

"Okay so we have a possible solution , but they still managed to take three Gundams down already and take one of those with them" she shook her head.

"Exactly why I am going , and news flash here ... no one said I was counting on company" yelled Trel as she threw the helmet back on and shut the protective panel , sure she could be considerate but there was no way anyone was going to hold her down right now.

Amy was taken back , never had she ever heard Trel go off like that , she was usually the peace maker , happy go lucky type. Amy threw the helmet back on , there was no way to go back now as Savannna had already sealed her own suit and was silently waiting.

Relena ran back , sure they had woken her with their early morning discussions and she was happy that they had found a safe way to fight , but just taking off was definitely not the best way to test it all out. She knocked on both the doors across the hall from their own room as she heard the first one fire up. "Wake up , the girls are taking off"

Wufei had been the first to the door , he had not been able to sleep and the knock had drawn him from his thoughts. "What do you mean they are taking off?"

The sound by now was a familiar noise as all three took off from base.

"Geez , what do they think they're doing" yelled Jason as he limped out of the room and headed for the source of the noise.

"What did they say?" Matt asked her , knowing that they couldn't stop them now.

"They had the space suits on , helmet and all ... I think they went looking for trouble , but that is better then listening to them fight each other" Relena had never heard them do much more then joke around but that wasn't any kind of joking she had ever heard out of them , they almost acted like they felt threatened by each other in there.

"Lets go bring them back" muttered Wufei under his breath , grumbling about the lack of team work.

"Okay now listen , I want you to go back to Quatre's place and stay with Sally , I won't leave you here alone and please don't make me beg" Matt quietly whispered to Relena , he couldn't risk her by taking her with him but refused to leave her here alone either.

"I won't be alone ... Jason , you'll stay here with me right ?" she asked the limping form before he rounded the corner , knowing if it came down to it she could always use Sally against him.

"Well I don't know little lady , guessin I can't just leave you here to the ingins" he said as he tried to do an impression of John Wayne.

"See , I won't be alone so there is no need to worry about that" she coaxed him down the hall and stood at the door with Jason as the others climbed into their own Gundams to track the wayward pilots down.

"Awh man , why couldn't they do this during the day , even the birds aren't up this early" whined Duo.

"Not my fault you give her to long a leash Maxwell" huffed Wufei , who had not recovered from his own problems and was not willing to listen to any one else.

"Can it guys , lets find them and get them back" interrupted Matt , in no mood to listen to their usually amusing banter.

"Um , are we going to catch them now or should we just wait till they blow something else up?" asked Quatre who had been scanning for them when a major explosion caught his attention.

"How ... never mind , lets just get them and get back" added Wufei.

By the time they had made it to the sight there was nothing but molten metal and scorched earth but at least they could be tracked , the unfortunate part was that it hadn't been before another explosion rocked the surrounding area , but it hadn't ended at just the one this time as the sky lit up again.

By the time they got there most of it had died down , the unfortunate part was that it had become an up close and personal battle. Savanna had the laser whip in full motion knocking one of the two Black Zero systems from the air. Amy had taken a good chunk out of the one she was facing off with and trying to keep it from disappearing on her while Trel brought an earlier discarded Beam canon to bare in on Kodiac.

"Trel , drop the gun" yelled Matt across the intercom.

"I don't think she heard you" countered Quatre as it started to power up

Wufei tried to reach it with his dragon attack but it had come up short.

"What a time to test a stupid theory" sighed Duo , bringing the watch up and feeling like a fool. "Ocasta , drop the bloody gun"

It took a moment for the whole scene to sink in as everyone had been in a rush to stop the fatal shot , Savanna and Amy had taken the newcomers as potential threats and had rounded with their own weapons ready to attack causing an even bigger round of confusion and leaving a window for the two damaged Zero's to use as a good time to escape but the beam canon had stopped it's attack and slipped harmlessly to the ground leaving Ocasta wide open for the incoming attack Kodiac was now launching.

The Gatlin guns blazed across the sky , leaving the double plated hull dented and scratched as it came in , grabbing Kodiac in mid air and activated the electrical field generator.

"Amy , it's us ... don't make me attack you" Heero coldly announced , the last thing we wanted to do was purposely take her down right now.

"Savanna ..." came Trowa's quiet voice.

Their response was not exactly what they expected , a typed message came across instead of the voices they knew so well.

'Why did you stop us , we almost had them this time' was all it read.

"The suits , they can't hear us with the helmets on" Quatre finally filled them in , having finally realized what the significance of the whole thing was.

"Yeah tell me about it , but that doesn't stop me much" laughed Duo as he strapped Trel's watch on , wondering just how hard it would be to make a few more like this. "Bet she's pitching a fit right now"

"You know something I don't?" inquired Matt to a broad grinned Duo.

"I'll fill you in when we get them back to base" he laughed , reading Heero's response to the earlier written message.

'We will get them next time , lets return to base and account for the damages'

Wufei had dropped beside the disabled form of Kodiac and waited for an extra set of thrusters to help him out , eventually getting Matt to support the other side. Ocasta had gotten up not long after it hit the ground but had just stood there as if waiting for something to happen.

"Man , she sure is quiet" said Matt , not really wanting to push his luck with Trel after finding her with a gun and aiming it at one of her best friends.

"Well that depends on your definition of quiet I guess" grimaced Duo as he read another nasty note she had managed to send him privately.

The return had been much smoother then the actual hunt and when they had finally made it to base both Jason and Relena had been waiting to greet them but not in the same way. Relena ran to Matt and checked him over for any new injuries and when she didn't find any she pulled him in for a kiss.

"There is no way I am kissing any of you" chuckled Jason as he watched the scene unfold before him.

Amy had emerged and threw the helmet back into her chair as she left , it was annoying but good as a precaution.

Savannna had explained along the way that they had likely destroyed any remote transmitters within a few hours radius which was what they had found and not remains from any buildings.

The real noise started when Duo stood outside of Ocasta and ordered the door down by the watch , but thankfully he had been quick enough to dodge the fist that was aimed for his head as Trel launched herself out of the machine at him.

"What did you think you were doing back there , don't you ever mess with my machine again" she yelled as she once again tried to get at him.

It had been Jason that had caught her mid way , trying to hold her back with a shocked look. "Man , how much did I miss?"

"Trela , you almost blew Nikita up" Duo tried to explain but it obviously wasn't getting through to her.

Trel pivoted on one foot bringing Jason around with her before finally breaking his hold and storming out of the room.

"She may be a little high strung , or just drank to much pop" shrugged Jason watching as she left then turning to see that they had recovered Kodiac in their explorations.

The cockpit was open and there was no sign of Wufei anywhere.

"Um , we might want to lave those two alone for a little longer or does anyone else prefer to have their head ripped off for them?" asked Amy as she looked over the mobile suit that lay on the bay floor.

They had left the self punishing pilot of the Alt-Long alone to watch after Niki , knowing that when she woke he would likely come find them , it was after all his way to segregate himself but it had been a long time since he had reverted to his ways so pushing him was the furthest from their minds. 


	12. A few things discovered

The group had intended on getting some more sleep , it was still just before 4:30 in the morning and what little sleep they had gotten left them more tired then when they'd gone to sleep , but the events of the night left them more restless and less likely to get any sleep at all.

Wufei had sat there in the cock pit of the Gundam brushing the misplaced hair back off Niki's face while thinking of the last time he had seen her , he had been angry that she's charged head long into a situation that she had no idea about , and without even telling him about it which once again reminded him about the last time that had happened.

That was back when things were easier , before he had given every ounce of his internal peace to bring a greater peace. She had thought he was a coward and had gone out on her own but truth be told he was not willing to risk it all for something so trivial as who was in control of the colony, but he refused to let her go alone into battle.

Of course she had thought herself the strongest , and of heart she was , she had set out to fight for those who would destroy the colony but with the wrong idea and for the wrong reasons. Putting the fate of all those that lived here upon her own shoulders instead of working together with others , all in the name of justice , but one person is not strong enough to bring justice for all and it took her death before she had realized it , what was it going to take Nikita to learn the same lesson.

Niki stirred , moving her head towards the warmth of Wufei's hand , in his musings he had left it to dangle by her cheek and was startled when her breath brushed by the finger tips. Her face was so peaceful as she lay there , he had lost one already to such recklessness and he had no idea how she had narrowly missed earning the same fate.

"Wufei ..." comes the voice in the dark from below his lowered face as a pair of grey eyes search his face in the dim light.

"It's okay ... your okay" he reassures her with a soft smile , of course the words were more for his own benefit then for her reassurance.

"This is the most uncomfortable bed I have ever laid on" she smiled back weakly , trying to move before realizing she was still belted into her seat.

Wufei quickly unfastened her and gently picked her up from the seat she had been laying in quietly since they'd returned. "You are unharmed right?" he questioned.

"Nothing a hot bath wouldn't cure I'm sure" she replied , nuzzling her face into his chest. "I'm sorry I couldn't stop them , but I did try"

"No ..." again she had just struck that nerve , the note of finality that Merian had left before she said no more , and he was not about to go through that again. " ... don't you ever apologize for doing your best , we're going to find your friend , I am not going to lose another warrior to this madness"

With that he crawled up out of the cockpit , trying to keep from jostling the small form of Niki that rested against his chest , the fear of his past repeating itself over riding anything he had done to keep himself calm up to this point.

Niki was not use to this kind of treatment , other then the concern she had received at the hands of her own group it had been some time since anyone had cared for her , when she had moved to the city she had no one but her instructor , even Trel had seemed distant some of the time leaving her to fend for herself and now Wufei was acting like she was the most important thing on base ... it was a new feeling to be wanted and guarded at the same time. 

"I'm not going anywhere , at least not for a short time , I can be sure that we aren't going anywhere till all the other Gundam's are caught" she smiled reassuringly back at his concerned face.

Wufei stopped and looked down into her eyes , she seemed so sure of herself that it left him to wonder what his hurry was. "I am sorry , it seems I have had very little time for you and losing you as I did made that unforgivable" he had spent most of this time thinking about how he had almost lost her and it had just now hit him how little attention he had even paid her since her return.

"It doesn't matter , that is the past and no matter how we try to change it there is no going back , all we can do is try to do better in the future" she lectured him , she didn't regret anything she had ever done as it would have been something that had made her stronger along the way , and to wish any different would change things she was not willing to give up.

Heero had walked Amy back to her room , waiting till he knew she was on her bed before leaving but at the lack of hearing a second door open she was once again at the door watching silently after him as he left the hall. She followed to see exactly what it was that he had in mind but found he had gone to the core of the base and sat in the closest seat but what puzzled her was that there was nothing around the chair.

His head dropped as he sat there , the picture of Tenshi no Namida turned and its weapons trained on them , what would have happened had their little plan failed and she had once again gone Zero ... would he have been able to fire on her knowing it was her.

"Heero ...?" Amy quietly called from across the room , sure he was usually quiet but it seemed he was never inactive let alone the type to sit in a dark room with nothing to do.

"Amy , I thought you were going back to bed" he quickly replied as he stood up and turned towards her , not wanting to explain the situation he had just been caught in.

"Well you didn't go to bed , I just wanted to make sure you were alright" she said slowly , weighing her words carefully as she walked closer to him.

"I'm fine , but you should really rest , no saying what tomorrow will bring" he smiled , but it was more a gesture then something he felt as it never reached his eyes.

Amy looked up at the ceiling that was concealed by the darkness , not being able to keep her thoughts when she was lost in his gaze. "I know you don't like to talk much let alone to express yourself but I am a good listener you know ... if something was bothering you"

" A lot of things bother me , not all which am I willing to share" he said as he watched her , it wasn't that he didn't want to tell her but how she would react that kept him from sharing , sure he hadn't lied to her but not telling her how worried he was really had him at odds with himself.

"Well when you do want to share you know where I am " she sighed , she had hoped he'd outgrown the untrusting attitude he once had.

"Leaving without hearing what I am willing to share?" he asked , his eyes softened , knowing he was crazy but it seemed that the more that got dumped on him the more he expected to explode under the strain , and it went against everything he had been taught.

She smiled , maybe she had broken through to him after all. "I wouldn't dream of leaving"

It hadn't exactly been what he expected to hear from her but he was glad she'd put it that way , even if it wasn't a guarantee that she'd never leave. "I'd been thinking about how everything keeps changing , just when you get use to one thing it all changes"

"Tell me about it , just when you think things are finally getting back to normal there is a new thing to deal with" she confirmed knowingly , she'd lived most of her life like that right up till tonight.

"Yeah ... and sometimes you face things that you never expected , like the wrong end of a gun ..." he was trying to make a point but didn't know exactly how to spit it out.

"I haven't been doing this long enough for that" she tried to ease his tension , not sure what he was trying to say but knowing it was important to him.

"When you left before ... it was like a big void was all I had so I tried to hide it , then today when once again I was face to face with death and the only thing I could think about was how I'd lost you again , at least that was how it seemed ..." he was finally pulling it out and it wasn't getting any easier. " ... I'm tired , tired of feeling nothing just so I don't feel the pain that comes every time you leave"

Amy couldn't help herself , she'd filled the hole with her brothers but it hadn't made it any easier , that was why they all had worked so hard to get back here and even though she knew her friends had all felt about the same way it was more comforting coming from him. "Yeah , tired of trying to forget just so you can remember how to live again"

'Why had she thrown a punch at me , she's never done that before even when I've pinned her to the ground , and she was so angry , I don't think I was the only one that noticed either' mused Duo , he had left the hanger to try and find her , not that he wanted to face off with her but to try and understand what exactly had happened , knowing he must have missed something.

He had looked but was starting to feel like he'd have better chances of finding a pin then catching up with Trel. He had tried where he'd found her the last time but to no avail , that was when he realized a small draft now blew where he was sure none had before. In the darkness he found another hallway , but this one led out into the fresh air.

He followed it to it's end only to find it had indeed been one of the hidden entrances into the base , having come out right under an old tree but he held off walking out until he was sure Trel was no where in sight. Upon his exit from the base he noticed the area looking like a small wooded area and noticed the prints in the dew soaked ground which led him up to a small incline where she lay looking over the stars.

He walked up and laid down beside her , his usual comedy act put off to the side in favor of a quick get away if it was needed.

"What ... have you got me bugged or something now as well ?" she scoffed , still extremely upset at him from earlier.

"Nope , just thought I would come out and watch the sun come up after all it must be close now , that is unless you have a problem with that cause I can always leave , find a different place you know ..." Duo was playing it cool , that  
was the best way to work around things.  
was the best approach in this situation.

  
"I was just leaving anyway so do as you'd like" she replied , sitting up and was almost ready to get up when he pounced on her , trying to keep her from leaving. "Duo , get off me"

"Sorry but I can't , this time your going to tell me what is wrong instead of pushing me away like that" he said , he had spent many years as part of a group and knew sometimes you had to push to get anywhere in it.

"What does it matter , when this is all over we get pulled away again so don't act like it's a forever kind of issue" she preached , turning her head away and tried to get up from under him without making her side hurt any worse then it already did.

"Maybe we can change that , it's not like we didn't make it to your world once now , your acting like you gave up already" his face dropped as he said it , he hadn't given up and couldn't understand why anyone would while they had exactly what they wanted.

"Your living a 15 year olds dream , not all fairy tales end happily ever after and that is all this seems to be" she sighed , it was true in her mind , she'd seen happily ever after end up being more harmful when it's not all it was cracked up to be.

"No , but if you let it stop you then you've given up on life , I've lost enough things that I could have given up long ago but I didn't so you can't either" he'd recalled , having lost his parents , his best friend as a child , the only place he knew as home and the family that they'd made plus his partner once , with all of that gone he had still found a way to carry on.

"I know , and now your asking me to put one more thing in there that can be lost , why?" maybe if she put the shoe on the other foot she might get the answers that she needed , hoping he'd have an answer that would make it look better then she saw it.

"Cause it makes tomorrow look just that much better , see we never know when things will end or start but if you don't take the chance then you never will know just how much better it can be , make any sense to you?" he moved , getting up off her chest and sitting on the ground beside her.

"No , but you seem to believe it" she smiled a little back at him , still trying to figure out how this was going to fix her problem , sure he was right but how could she apply that to what was really bothering her now.

"Better be careful , you smiled ... someone might think your in a good mood if you keep that up" he joked , he had always been the one to bring a smile , and he knew no one could really argue his logic , even Father Maxwell had proved that long ago.

"How do you have so much faith in something that you don't understand and can't control?" it was a question that had perplexed her , this was the same one that had said he didn't believe in God because he had never seen a miracle and yet he was asking her to believe in something almost as elusive.

"Don't understand you , nor do I control you but I've had a lot of faith in you ... does that count?" he shrugged , laughing at her as she shook her head at him.

"Duo , that isn't what I meant and you know it ... sometimes I am sure your crazy" she laughed after him , it was almost impossible to try and stay anything but happy around him , it was when he wasn't around that she doubted any of it was real.

"Hmm ... but you love me anyway" he smirked as he dropped down to kiss her forehead.

"Yeah , wouldn't change you ... hey , who said anything about love here?" she sat up and looked at him , his words finally registering in her mind.

Duo ducked his head , giving her one of those sad puppy-eyed looks. "Awh , you wouldn't take it back now , would you ... after all I've been in your room"

"You what ... no way , Niki wouldn't let you in my room" her eyes grew wide , sure it wasn't well decorated but all the things in there even Niki hadn't seen.

Duo pulls the CD out from his pocket , the one he had been listening to in her CD player. "Oh really , should we see what's on this one ?" he grinned evilly back at her as he flashed the label which read 'Karaoke Hits'.

Trel closed her eyes knowing she'd just been caught , that was her CD , the one she'd made singing the songs in a novelty shop back home. "You wouldn't ... "

"Why not , been listening to it since I borrowed it from your room , funny though it doesn't sound like you gave up on it though ..." he laughed at her , for someone who wasn't shy to sing them she sure seemed different when she knew who had it.

"Okay , I give , just don't play it to anyone else , I'd made it but it never came the second time we made it back , was suppose to be a present sort of" she remembered the CD , she'd made it not long after their first return but had no way to get it to him so it had been her reminder of him.

"Guess you can't quit believing now so come on , say it" he stretched , the CD still in one of his hands.

Trel leaned over and kissed him , letting him be shocked for once as he was right , they hadn't given up till now and they had been here three times , plus the others had been to their world so she couldn't give up when there was a better chance now then ever before.

Jason had grabbed Quatre after leaving the main bay , he wanted to know what he had missed but really hadn't been expecting all that he'd heard.

"This thing is getting more dangerous , now instead of dropping them they start a gun fight with their own friends , not to mention blowing things up and bringing them to fisted-cuffs when they're face to face ... we have got to get these things out before it gets worse" Jason started , sure he wasn't to amused about the whole situation as it stood but now it was worse.

"I don't know if it is the receivers that are doing it , the whole Zero system had that effect , aggression was just one of them" said Quatre , he had been effected the worst by the system but it wasn't like it was something that could be easily controlled.

"Yeah , and they have a direct line , even the bat phone wasn't that dangerous" Jason sighed , what good was being a strategist if he couldn't come up with a plan to fix things like this.

"Well it's not like we can't take it out , just that it may be hard to get them all to agree , I doubt it was put there under their own will" Quatre added in , trying to help figure it out.

"The interesting part is that they didn't change much , or if they do it is for short periods of time , Savanna did the exact maneuver we used on Saddam when we went against him , giving him the first official beating , Amy used a lot of moves we did in outer space , training against any kind of space junk that floated our way and Trel ... maybe a bad action movie , but most of them were moves we used at one point or another" he analyzed , trying to figure the connection out.

"It's not like they acted much different either , well most of the time anyway" Quatre offered , catching on to Jason's line of though.

"We can use that to our advantage , the system is unsound so we should be able to help out if we keep trying to figure it out , I'm not about to let my best friends do this alone" he had been impossible to separate from Savanna as long as he could remember and then the others came making them a group and now not just one was in a bad way but the number had likely just risen to four.

"Maybe if we analyzed the material we could find a way to break it down to it's components?" thought Quatre , the main worry about how to get the dangerous parts un-entwined so it could be removed.

"Or direct blast with a precise laser , they fix eyes like that back home" Jason shrugged , glad he had grabbed Quatre as it seemed he had a good head on his shoulders.

"Well I'm not a doctor but I could see if maybe one of my sisters could figure something out , of course Sally could have the answer already for all we know ... maybe we should invite her over tomorrow and run a few ideas by her , she's closest after all"

Jason laughed at Quatre and how he still talked like they were rooming out at the Ritz or some fancy resort instead of a half destroyed base. "Man , when we invite her should we have it catered or just stick to coffee and cookies?"

"I could always have something sent over , but I am not calling at this time of night ... check the vending machines yet?" Quatre couldn't help it , Jason was about as addictive as Duo could be , always with a joke or smile and just as impulsive in the end.

"I've been starving all night and we have vending machines ... awh man" Jason grimaced as they both walked out to find a bite to eat , most of his worry put off until they could get someone who had a clue what the scan meant to translate it before they got into any deep theories on just how to get it out.

Trowa had followed Savanna , letting her lead in the silence that he had become accustomed to while relating the similarities they both seemed to share. She seemed in good physical shape and although that was due to sports, but it wasn't any different then he had done over the years , although his wasn't so much a setting that one did with others. A hard one to crack as well, which she showed while under cover ... the old hag had been an interesting video to watch when he had found it. Plus she seemed happy to keep her opinion to herself unless it was vital , usually ending up much like the silent partner of the group that really only did something when it mattered but refrained from over reacting. 

Then there were times where she could be pulled out of that too, like the water sports at the lake they had all participated in , or the ball where she'd actually shared something of herself with him before it all hit the fan. Making him wonder just how much he really didn't seem to know about her.

"Okay not that I am complaining about the company but is there a reason your following me around or is it just a ghost like thing?" Savanna finally asked , the silence was getting to her.

"Just not tired and you seemed to have a plan so I tagged along" he said with a matter of fact attitude.

"A plan ... biggest plan I had was to find something that could play music and see if I couldn't lull myself off to sleep , care to join me still?" she smirked , she knew she could try working out hoping to wear herself out but after the last hour and some the last thing she wanted to do was fight.

"Sure , what kind of music were you going to listen to ?" came his amused reply , he wasn't a 'something' but he knew how to play music , of course it would have been better if he had Quatre playing with him.

"Even a radio that hasn't lost all it's transistors would be nice right now" Savanna snorted , so far the closest she came was listening to snow on the TV.

"I've got an idea , that is if your willing to follow along." his mind going to his flute , it was a soft enough sound that it might fix her lack of music , or anything to play it on.

Savanna shrugged and followed him , she had only heard it once , it was in the show so she was not against having a personal audience while he played.

Trowa peeked into the vacant room before he retrieved his silver plated instrument , ushering her over to her own room and tucking her in before he even started but he had her full attention , she had lain on her side facing him and waiting. He really hadn't done this in front of many which made this a little more difficult on him but none the less he started in soft and low , keeping it slow to try and ebb her into a calmer state.

She listened intently , closing her eyes to concentrate on what he played and the colors and motions it brought to mind , smiling as he played for her alone. Most times he seemed so reserved that this was out of character for him but then if that were true when did he have time to learn the flute , this was a side she was sure few had ever seen or ever would as it took a lot for him to let his guard down this much , it was a comfort knowing he trusted her.

Matt had walked out the door , making sure not to disrupt the others as they left but he had moved slowly away from the door , part of him wanted to go and make sure Nikita was all right but it wasn't a wise thing to get in Wufei's way , and tracking Trel down was not the highest on his list of things to do at this moment , with his luck he wouldn't dodge quick enough and get hit in Duo's stead.

Relena stepped up behind him , putting her arms around his waist and laying her head against his back as she took both comfort and strength from the silence that surrounded them for a minute before saying anything.

"They are safe again and still you worry , I would suggest a hot bath but you'd stew yourself in there if I left you to think to long so tell me , how do I make you relax?"

Matt slumped a little , the shoulders slooping at her words , he was sure he stressed her out most when he was silent but with his own mind a whirl it was hard to think let alone find the answer to that kind of question. He put his arms atop of hers and tried to relax , after all it wasn't like she had been in any danger so he did have one worry less on his plate.

"I know , I'll beat you on your video game , how that relaxes you as you jump up and down yelling at the bad guys I will never know but at least then you smile" she giggled , she hadn't much practice with games but it was something he enjoyed so she hoped it was something that could be quickly learned.

"You are always thinking of things to try and quell a situation , but I'm not about to back down to a challenge" he grinned devilishly as he turned around in her arms , he wasn't sure if he was going to enjoy watching her finally let loose and try it more or if her bewilderment at how to work the controls would be his final downfall at keeping his usual cool composure.

"I hope not , wouldn't want you thinking that I haven't been practising while you've been away so pick away" she laughed , a glint in her eyes as she watched his whole demeanor change with just a simple thought.

Now he was worried , she had been practising and although he didn't know which ones she'd been working on he doubted anything would put them on even ground here , he was going to have to pick something he knew almost everything about or a game of sheer chance.


	13. All for fun

It had been a few days since anyone had even heard of activity from the black gundams , but the American's attributed it to this time of the season , after all it was around this time a few years back that they had taught Bin Laden a few tricks on All Hallow's Eve.

Of course no one had really explained much to the original pilots about that night which had been a saving grace to some of them , Wufei surely would have been embarrassed about his outbreak of rage at Jason who had run like a mad man to escape the enraged Chinese boy. Savanna didn't have so much to worry about as Trowa had seemed mostly stunned upon seeing a headless horseman ride by him and just disappear. Amy had been seen but there was no way they could really link her being there to all the strange happenings in the surrounding area and thankfully Matt had managed without so much of a scrape leaving Trel who had faced off with Duo instead of doing the smart thing and just disappearing , almost toying with him before she had left. Of course Trel had told Nikita all about it but was certainly not about to repeat the story to any one else for fear that they might just have taken the whole thing the wrong way.

The final vote was to try and scare each other senseless with a night of gross horror movies since no one really wished to venture far from the base with how quiet it had been as of late. They had worked most of that day moving things around in the research room or war room to accommodate all the pilots and furniture that they would need for that sort of a night while some of the original pilots went out looking for good candidates to be used that night in their very own scare festival.

It was almost a weird scene as this was the first time they had taken time out to just relax as a group , even the party at Quatre's mansion had ended up as a show with so many people around to both protect and entertain but now it was just 12 friends sitting around watching movies like any other teen party.

"Oh .. you gotta see this part Quatre , this is where they find a body in the dryer ..." Jason exclaimed excitedly , trying to pull the cushion out of Quatre's hands so he didn't miss any of the good parts.

"Jason ... some of us haven't seen it" yelled Savanna , having thrown a pillow from her perch beside Trowa , they had claimed a pair of foam lounge chairs near the wall.

"I don't want to see , that is what the cushion is for" mumbled Quatre , relieved at the break from having to fight Jason for his relief.

"Oh please , everyone knows it is all fake" laughed Duo as he really didn't seemed to bothered by the movies.

"Yeah , tell that to my mind when I wake up too ..." snickered Trel who had been smart and just closed her eyes when it got to gory , reminding herself that what ever it was wouldn't last 5 seconds against her Gundam.

"Well if everyone is scared then why did we rent them?" asked Heero , who had really seen no point in this to begin with.

"Not everyone is scared , I have two brothers that would call this tame" replied Amy as she snuggled closer to him , she had scored a blanket and was happily curled up next to him on a small sofa.

"Is it bothering you ?" Matt asked Relena , he couldn't tell in the dimly lit room but she seemed a little edgy at times.

"Why do people make movies like this , that thing isn't even real , I swear I saw the blade wabble" she commented , her eyes still glued to the screen.

"Because they have a sick twisted mind but unlike the sick twisted minds we know so well the poor buggers that make them don't have a 60 ft metal machine to do these things so they make movies instead?" he managed to say , keeping a straight face while everyone looked at him , well keeping it till Relena looked back in shock before he broke the face of stone with a broad grin.

"Ah man ... what a way to go , in a hot tub ..." sighed Jason , still giving the cowards an update on what was going on in the movies.

Quatre jumped up as if he had been shot when a scream echoed across the room only to find a very ruffled Niki glaring at an abashed Wufei , who had moved his arm from the back of the couch and brushed her shoulder scaring the bejeezus out of her. "Anyone need more popcorn?"

"Yeah , a bowl over here would be great Q-man" choked Duo who had been laughing so hard that he earned himself an elbow from Trel.

"I'll help out , anyone up for more drinks" huffed Niki , she had not been one for horror movies to begin with and was glad when Quatre opened a window of escape , even if it were only for a few minutes.

Everyone had been up for more drinks and the popcorn was always a great movie treat but by the time Quatre and Niki had returned the movie was over and Jason was dancing about with another one in hand. 

"How about a suspense instead of a chiller killer movie this round Jason , let everyone have a chance to get their stomachs back" said Matt , he had never seen so many pale faces in one room for a long time.

"Awh ... but this one is really good" Jason whined back.

"Jason ... if anyone wakes up screaming I am gonna make you go settle them down personally" chided Savanna , trying to make Jason choose the lesser of the two evils.

"Awh but mommy ..." he continued , he knew he wasn't going to win against her so he flopped down in his chair and put his best effort into pouting much like a child would.

The movie progressed smoothly after that , they had laid off the gore entwined movies for the classics like Sleepy Hollow and such , and during the final movie Jason got up and left quietly as a plan had come to mind , gaining himself little notice as it was near the ending of the last movie.

When the movie had finally finished the others reluctantly faced the fact that sleep had yet to be attained , and that if they were attacked in the night they may not even notice till they were well buried under rubble. 

While they dispersed the lights dimmed out , leaving them in almost total darkness as Jason let his little joke go , he had been working on this for some time and had been waiting for the last moment to set it all up , he still had the equipment from the last time they'd played this game but this time he was just going to help Halowe'en along.

Ghostly figures danced down along the hallway above everyone's head as he had used the intercoms along the hall to amplify the sounds that they had recorded long ago , letting the projectors swoop the images he had uploaded for a few minutes before cutting them and positioning himself right in the center of the corridor , throwing something at the group as he let out some nasty noises.

"Oh jeez , how the hell did that thing get in?" asked the up till not unfaltering Duo who had hit the floor when the ghostly figures appeared.

Relena had hit her face in Matt's chest as he puller off to the side of the corridor , he had a good idea what was going on but had to make sure it was exactly what his suspicions chalked it down to.

Amy started laughing as soon as the tossed item hit the floor , she had to lower Heero's gun though as it was pointed at the shadowy figure that stood in the low light. "You shoot and we will be down a pilot"

Trowa had pushed Savanna behind him in a protective stance only to have an apparition go right through him which shocked him enough so Savanna could peek out from behind him. "Jason ... I am going to kill you ..."

Wufei watched in stunned silence , he had never been much for believing in the supernatural so it was almost amusing to him until he saw the form that was making itself into an obstacles just a few feet from them.

Niki hid her face in her hands trying not to fall down laughing , she had heard all about this but it was a lot more interesting to see the reactions instead of just imagining them. Of course she had never guessed that the original pilots would fall for it but few seemed unaffected by the scene as it unfolded before them.

"Oh good lord , pick yourself up out of the dirt will ya" said Trel , trying to pull 'Mr Macho' up from the cover he had tried to find.

"I don't understand ... what is going on?" asked Quatre , who had been about the only one that remained in the same place , having been glued to the spot as he tried to understand the situation.

"Fear me ..." came a distorted voice from the figure as it advanced on them but inadvertently slipping in the ketchup Jason had used in his rush to complete the whole scenario and falling to his backside from the oversight. "Owh ..."

"Jason , we really need to work on your sense of humor" Matt finally spoke , not having a complaint about how quick Relena had sought him out for protection but now wondering how many of them would end up with nightmares due to this stunt.

It had been Amy that found how he tapped into the lighting system and turned them back up as Savanna stood over Jason giving him a tongue lashing that even made Heero blush a little.

"A question ... " it was Wufei's voice as he kept his eyes on Jason , knowing that costume anywhere and Jason's dead companion was no defense in this situation." ... does he do this every Hallowe'en or just when I am around?" the malice in his voice couldn't be mistaken as his eyes showed his rage from deep inside.

"Um no ... it's not like that Wufei , really it isn't" Niki said , pulling the Chineese boy away before Jason found out just what Duo got every time he had enraged Wufei. "Now just let me explain it all , it really is a funny story ..."

"Um ... I'm going to bed , it's been fun and all but ..." with that Trel was gone , there was no way she was about to explain her part in any of this , especially to Duo who had just now picked himself up from the floor listening to Savanna yelling at Jason about how that was inappropriate.

"Hey wait ... aren't cha gonna explain it to me?" he yelled after her as he took off down the hall , trying to catch up with a cocky grin plastered to his face , knowing this would be an interesting story to hear.

"Salem" was all Trowa said , finally putting it all together and was almost amused to find out that he hadn't imagined it all , and that the stories he had heard from the others actually happened.

"Yeah , I should have known" smirked Heero as he watched Amy , he had seen her there after all but had never put the two incidents together.

Matt just grinned as Relena gave him a questioning look , none of it made any sense to her as no one had ever mentioned this until tonight. "Mat , what is going on here?"

"That is a question I would like answered myself" said a now very confused Quatre , looking at the whole group as almost everyone was either amused or embarrassed by now.

"Oh man it is great , you really should have been there Quat , we had a whole base pissing themselves in fear that night , not to mention a few pilots the way I heard it" Jason said , laughing so hard between Savanna's red face and the lost looks on both Quatre and Relena's face.

"Storm ... I am going to kill you" was all they heard from an adjoining hallway as it seemed Niki had finished explaining it and the fact of just who it was he had chased that night sank in.

"Oh jeez... we get medical benefits here right?" Jason asked and scrambled up just as Wufei came flying around the corner with Niki in hot pursuit of him. That was all the convincing Jason needed as he took off like a flash , looking for a good place to hide.

Relena just laughed , it seemed that she may have missed some in the translations but she doubted that was the first time Jason had run before the rampaging Wufei. "Well with that I think it should be safe enough for you to explain it over a warm cup of cocoa"

Their party wore down gradually from there , Duo had returned looking pleased with himself , holding a hand made scythe he had procured from Trel's Gundam after tackling her to the ground a few yards from the haven she sought that night. Trowa by this time had gotten the whole story out of Savanna and was content that the trick had not intentionally been played against them. Heero remembered Amy being there but did not find out about Matt being in the base as well until he explained his part in the whole thing and the entire time Quatre had a nasty case of the giggles while listening to three stories at once.

The funny part of the whole night was that Jason never did resurface before the others went for a well deserved rest , but none of them had chosen their own rooms to rest in either. For the first time in what seemed an eternity there seemed to be no gap between American and Original pilots , just a group of friends out to have the time of their lives with nothing to hold them back , not even fear of death or scar of war lingering in their minds. 


	14. Zapping a bug

Halowe'en had come and passed by but with no hint of activity from their unknown enemy. During this time Quatre had ganged up with Sally to work on a plan involving the receivers that had been implanted into their pilot's necks. Now Sally was not an expert but had more medical knowledge then Quatre did and what they came up with seemed so easy in theory.

The plan was to hit it with an ionic blast and reducing the intruding pieces down to basic components , which the body it's self would eventually deal with it it's own way. No surgery or worrisome removal process and it was a plan that even Savanna couldn't find fault with once they got the strength just right. That had been Quatre and Jason's part in the plan , they were the strategists of the group so tweaking the machine was best left to them but finding out what material had been used was bound to be the most difficult part of the job.

Niki had tried different herb mixtures to break hers down but all it had done was take away some of the irritation the metal was causing her , Savanna outright refused to be a guinea pig for experiments , Amy wasn't that sure that messing with it was a good idea after finding out exactly how it was connected to her brain and Trel was about ready to pull it out no matter what it did. In the end Trel had let them use her for the experiments , at least that way she knew it would be safe for the others in the end.

"Man ... I really don't like this" was all Amy had said as she watched , sure so far all they had done was cut the piece that was sticking out off the back of the neck to further investigate but it still creeped her out.

"Yeah , but it ain't bleeding so it shouldn't do any damage so long as I'm careful" Trel laughed , Savanna was gone as soon as she found out what was going on.

"But what if those things dig further into your head?" Amy asked , going white at the though.

"Well ... " Trel thought for a minute then laughed " Guess you'll need a new doctor huh?"

"That is not funny Trela " muttered Niki , she'd remained quiet till now , sitting in the corner of the room and almost wishing she hadn't stayed after all.

"Oh come on guys , if it is tied then it shouldn't go creeping along , and besides it would be almost impossible to get out if someone didn't offer to try ..." Trel said , she had made up her mind from the time it was brought up , she wanted this out in the worst way and hadn't even thought twice when everyone else had fallen quiet.

Niki shook her head and walked out , there was no way she was going to watch what came next let alone sit here and think about all the things that could go wrong.

"Famous last words "sighed Amy as she watched Niki leave. "Does Duo know?"

"Jason is good with machines , he may be a joker but this is his field , so stop worrying already ..." exasperated Trel , wondering why everyone was panicking already.

"Your avoiding the question" said Amy in a flat tone.

"Your right , I am" grinned Trel as she turned back to watch Quatre and Jason , the wisps of hair that had not been pulled up from her neck reminding her how little this event happened.

"He'll kill someone if this goes wrong" she warned Trel , Amy had always felt connected to Duo much like a sister would be.

"Hey , we've lived so far right?" Trel lectured without taking her eyes from what was going on in the next room.

Amy quickly knocked on wood , one of the few things you never said before something like this was that it couldn't get any worse and now Trel had just as much as said it.

"Why don't you go get something to eat , I'll come get you if you want before it all starts" came Trel's voice , it was easy to see she was not really paying attention to the conversation anyway and almost looked like she was going to help the other two anyway.

"Yeah sure but first ... did you want lilies or roses?" Amy joked , at least she'd have some time to talk her out of this later , or warn Duo about it.

"Um ... what?" Trel looked around to see Amy's grin.

"Oh nothing , just seeing if you had heard a word I said" joked Amy as she waved before she left the room.

Trel shook her head before cracking a smile , at least now she didn't have to hear about her untimely death as she went next door to get a first hand look at how this was going to work , they had started the testings so it really shouldn't be that long before it was ready.

She had watched the whole thing and the theory seemed simple enough , all that was left was a powder from where they had hit the metal and even though the question that remained was what would it do to the flesh surrounding it this was still their best plan. Of course there was no way of knowing how it would work until they tried and that was where she came in. 

She hadn't promised anyone that she'd come get them and the only one she asked had never really given her an answer so that made this easier. She left the watch on so everything could be monitored and put the purple shades down on her seat before she crawled up on the table and got comfortable , watching as Jason tried to psyche her out about the whole think.

She grinned back at him as he kept joking but when he had left to reconfigure things she didn't feel as confident as she had let on and was just now wishing she had brought something to listen to. "Hey Jason , do you actually have something music wise that doesn't sound like Godzilla?" 

"If that is a joke ..." he was cut off as Trowa walked in , having gotten Amy to keep Savanna occupied for the moment while he had come to investigate this whole thing she had been upset about.

"Oh sorry ... I didn't mean to interrupt" was all he said , taking the whole scene in. "I just wanted to see how your progress was"

"Well ... I have the first victim on the table , should I schedule you in next ?" cooed Jason with a manic grin on his face and a crazed look in his eyes.

Trowa's face dropped into a shocked look as he looked from Jason to Quatre.

Quatre giggled back and brought his hand to cover his mouth , he had been subjected to Jason's insane quotes all day so this one hadn't seemed out of place and almost tame compared to some of them.

"Nevermind ..." Trowa mumbled as he turned around and left , not wanting to see anymore.

"Ah ... I can not work in these conditions , I am not a man to be toyed with ..." yelled Jason in mock exasperation as he dramatically flung his arms in the air before turning back to his work.

"Hey , how about that music Jason?" snickered Trel as she turned back into the position she had been in before Trowa came in.

"There is no pleasing you people ..." he continued his mini rant as he stormed across the room and turned the television on , searching the channels till he found one with music.

"Okay , guess that'll have to do" she muttered.

"Dr. Jeckell didn't have this many problems " he continued grumbling , drawing another laugh from Quatre as he went back to the configurations.

"Yeah , but didn't he have a hunchback to do all the meager things?" grinned Trel , the music was relaxing but cracking jokes was making her feel less concerned.

"I'm better , my assistant can stand straight" he grinned as he leered over towards Quatre.

The whole room broke out in laughter as the finished aligning the emitter and taking final checks.

"Savanna , you have one weird friend" Trowa said when he had returned to the pair still playing a game , it was some kind of video fighting game which he had never heard of.

"Which one ... oh , you mean Jason?" she said as round two had just finished , looking up at Trowa. 

"Yes , he asked if I wanted to be his next victim" Trowa grimaced as he remembered the look in Jason's eyes.

"Next , good luck there , Trel wants to go first" Amy laughed , she had gotten the upper hand in Savanna's inattentive moment.

"Yeah , think they were working on her when I left" he said as his eyes turned to the television.

"What ... she was suppose to come get us" yelled Amy as she bounced up from the seat she had been sitting in , the game forgotten.

Trowa shrugged. "Maybe they hadn't started , but she was laying down and ..."

"If this doesn't kill her I will" said Amy as she tore out of the room , making it half way to the room before almost knocking Duo and Heero over in the hall as they left the kitchen area.

Amy stopped with some help as she bumped into Heero , she took a breath , looked at the pair and continued on , it was no use telling them about it now.

"What do you suppose that was all about?"smirked Duo as he watched her run to the end of the corridor.

"Out of the way , excuse me .." came Savanna's voice as she had seen the obstacle and was not about to stop just to avoid them.

Heero and Duo took the refuge offered by the sides of the hall and watched her race by with growing interest.

"Cat fight?" asked an amused Duo to a blank faced Heero who faced him from across the hall.

"Only if they catch her " said Trowa as he walked closer to the pair , in no hurry to go back into a room where Jason controlled the machinery.

The girls had ran into the room they had all sat in earlier but saw no point in continuing as it had already begun and were afraid if they interrupted it would end badly so there was little to do but sit and watch , waiting for it to end.

The other three walked in but only one knew what was going on , and that was only due to Savanna telling him earlier.

"Hey , they got that thing off her neck" said Duo as he came up to the window and watched what was going on.

"Really , they did that a few hours ago , now she's gonna get her brain fried just to get the whole thing out" fumed Amy.

Duo looked at Amy with surprise and then back at the machine. "Ah ... you wanna explain that a little better , think I lost something in the translation there"

"Ah , the operation was a success , will that be cash or charge?" Jason grinned as he turned the machine off , pleased with his own handy work.

"Oh man , I think that ride needs a sedative from now on" groaned Trel , who was glad she no longer had to fight just to keep still and even happier it was not a process she had to repeat.

"What the hell did you think you were doing?" came Duo's angry voice from the door , he had been the first to reach it and had not calmed down from finding out that this had been kept from him.

"Um ... having a nap?" was all Trel could come up with , her stomach was over ruling her mind as she wished it were true.

"Oh great , another one with a death wish ... how many times do you have to 'almost' die before this game isn't so fun?" he said , dropping the last part down to a whisper , letting everyone else from behind him finally enter the room and then leaving.

"I'm going to kill you" said Amy as she looked down at Trel.

"That's Heero's line ... anyone got an Advil , think I may end up with a headache" moaned Trel , still not bothering to move.

"It shouldn't have given you a headache" said Jason , rechecking all that they had done.

"I mean from all the yelling" she snickered , trying to lay quiet so her stomach would settle.

Savanna and Trowa had gone to tell the others that the machine had worked , Amy had gone in search of Duo who had been no where in sight when the room calmed down and Heero had gone to report back to Une about their latest findings.

Trel had eventually moved herself into the observation room and found a soft couch to lay down on after telling Jason that Gravol and a mild sedative would be all he needed to get his ride approved. She was still there when Niki walked in with Wufei , now that it seemed safe and no one had stopped her from going next and that was exactly what she planned on doing.

"Oh ... I hope you haven't eaten recently Niki" sighed Trel from the couch , finally getting both of their attention.

"Are you sure you don't want something for that , you know I can make something up" Niki said , coming over to Trel and checking her over with concern.

"Nah , just happy to lay here quietly , besides now I get to see how gross it looked" Trel smiled back , snuggling under the blanket she had found.

Jason had found a few things that would likely help Niki out before letting her crawl up on the table , the big difference was that she was not going through this alone , Wufei had stayed right where she could see him and Trel relaxed , knowing that when she did wake up the enraptured Chinese youth would still be there and ever watchful.

The whole process took little time , it was the waking that consumed most of the time but that too was a good thing , giving her body time to deal with both the pain and nausea that would assail her when finally she did wake.

Amy came next and by now all knew the risks and how so far it had worked without any sever repercussions but that didn't drop the protective nature Heero displayed when Amy finally closed her eyes. He had moved so he could watch both her and Jason while the process was going on.

Trel got up from the couch and went in search of Savanna , she was next and had not shown her face since Trel had finished. They had expected that she wouldn't be easy to convince which was the only reason Trel had decided to stay awake and watch , hoping that Savanna's worry could be ebbed if she saw one up and moving after the whole thing.

After a few minutes of looking it was Trowa and Savanna that had found Trel , they had been in the gym working out and had just now finished. Trel informed them that Amy had just gone in and that Niki looked to be in fine shape after the whole thing so Savanna was likely to be needed soon.

Leaving them to digest the news Trel finally decided to find her own bed for the peace and quiet surroundings instead of watching everyone from the side lounge , with her stomach still doing a few flips every so often a nice quiet dark room would seem like heaven to rest in right now. The part she hadn't forseen was someone else having curled up on her bed instead , when she walked in it looked like someone had been listening to her CD player and fell asleep. Duo was propped up against the wall with her blanket in behind him fast asleep , the sight almost made her laugh if she trusted her stomach enough to try.

She walked over knowing better then to disturb him but still seeking the refuge of a dark hole in the wall that she just grabbed an extra blanket and lay down gently beside him , listening to scraps of the song that was playing and finally wondering how long he had been asleep , after all she hadn't seen him since earlier that morning and here it was well after noon now but soon stopped her thoughts as her mind wandered into a light slumber bringing her some small amount of relief.

~~~~oO{@}Oo~~~~

Well that be this one , guess I was closer to finishing this chappy then I had thought. Incase you wonder I was taken prisoner by a game called Disciples 2 and had to slay the evil game so I could throw the last page in and put it up.

Matt: I did not forget you but I am sure that by now Relena has found a way to keep you from worrying , I just wasn't gonna ask her exactly what that was *L* 


End file.
